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SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE; 



OR 



CONTRIBUTIONS 



MPROVEMENT OF SCHOOL-HOUSES 



THE UNITED STATES. 



BY HENRY BARNARD, 

COMMISSIONER OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN RHODE ISLAND. 



FOURTH EDITION. 

NEW YORK: . 
PUBLISHED BY A. S. BARNES & CO. 
CINCINNATI :— H. W. DERBY & CO. 
1850. 



L3 a Aof 



PREFACE. 



The following contribution to the improvement of school-houses, was 
originally prepared by the author in 1838, as one of a series of addresses 
designed for popular and miscellaneous audiences, and as such, was 
delivered in various towns in Connecticut during the four years he acted 
as Secretary of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools for that 
State. It was printed for the first time in the Connecticut Common 
School Journal in the winter of 1S41; and again, in 1842, as one of the 
documents appended to his Annual Report to the Board for that year. 
Since that date it has been repeatedly published, each time with addi- 
tional plans ana descriptions of new and convenient school-houses, until 
upwards of twenty thousand copies have been gratuitously circulated in 
the States where the author has been called upon to labor in the cause 
of common-school improvement, or among the friends of popular educa- 
tion in other parts of the country. At the suggestion of many of these 
friends, the work has been put into the hands of a publishing house, to 
be brought before the public, in the hope that it may still continue to 
help those who are looking round for approved plans of school-houses, by 
introducing them to the results of much study, observation and experi- 
ence on the part of many laborers in this department of public education. 
It was the wish of the author to revise that portion of the work in which 
the general principles of school architecture are discussed, and to arrange 
the various plans and descriptions of improvements in the construction, 
internal arrangement, and furniture of school-houses, which have been 
added to each successive edition in the order of time in which they have 
been brought to his notice, under appropriate heads. But his time is too 
much absorbed in the immediate and pressing duties of his office, to admit 
of his doing any thing beyond a general superintendence of the publica- 
tion, and the preparation of a few additional plans, for this edition. 

With such views, therefore, as the essay originally presented, and 
with such modifications and additions as he has been able to embody in 
each successive edition, it is now committed to the hands of the pub- 
Ushers. These views were formed after a careful consideration of the 



Q PREFACE. 

subject in its various relations, direct and indirect, to the health, manners, 
morals, and intellectual progress of children, and the health and success 
of the teacher, both in government and instruction. The subject was 
forced on the attention of the author in the very outset of his labors in 
the field of public education. U*o where he would, in city or country, he 
encountered the district school-house, standing in disgraceful contrast 
with every other structure designed for public or domestic use. Its loca- 
tion, construction, furniture and arrangements, seemed intended to hinder, 
and not promote, to defeat and not perfect, the workiwhich was to be 
carried on ivithin and without its walls. (-The attention of parents and 
school officers was early and earnestly called to the close connection 
between a good school-house and a good school, and to the great prin- 
ciple that to make an edifice good for school purposes, it should be budt 
for children at school, and their teachers; for children differing in 
age, sex, size, and studies, and therefore requiring different accommoda- 
tions ; for children engaged sometimes in study and sometimes in recita- 
tion ; for children whose health and success in study require that they 
shall be frequently, and every day, in the open air, for exercise and recre- 
ation, and at all times supplied with pure air to breathe ; for children who 
are to occupy it in the hot days of summer, and the cold days of winter, 
and to occupy it for periods of time in different parts of the day, in posi- 
tions which become wearisome, if the seats are not in all respects com- 
fortableWd which may affect symmetry of form and length of life, if the 
construction and relative heights of the seats and desks which they occupy 
are not properly attended to ; for children whose manners and morals, — 
whose habits of order, cleanliness and punctuality, — whose temper, love of 
study, and of the school, are in no inconsiderable degree affected by the 
attractive or repulsive location and appearance, the inexpensive out-door 
arrangements, and the internal construction of the place where they 
spend or should spend a large part of the most impressible period of their 
lives. This place, too, it should be borne in mind, is to be occupied by a 
teacher whose own health and daily happiness areaffected by most of the 
various circumstances above alluded to. and whose best plans of order, 
classification, discipline and recitation, may be utterly baffled, or greatly 
promoted, by the manner in which the school-house may be located, 
lighted, warmed, ventilated and seated. 

. With these general views of school architecture, this essay was 
originally Avritten. The author will be happy to receive from any 
quarter, plans and descriptions of new school-houses, and to insert them 
in subsequent editions of this work, with proper acknowledgment for the 
same. 

H. BARNARD. 

Office of Commissioner of Public Schools, 
Providence, R. I., January 1, 1848. 



CONTENTS, 



PREFACE 

* • • o 5 

INTRODUCTION ... 

• • • .15 

Condition of School-houses in Massachusetts . i * 

" " New York . ' . .'.'.'.' .' {? 

Vermont 22 

« New Hampshire . . .",.*." 24 

4S Connecticut ..*...... 25 

,, ' Maine . . ' . ' . ' 20 

c« Rhode Island . . . . . .".".. 30 

Michigan . . . . . .'.'.'.' 31 

SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 39 

I. Common Errors to be avoided ..... oq 

II. General Principles to be observed . . 4 n 

1. Location— Style— Construction . . . ' ' In 

2. Size '■"*■•:• *V 

3- Light '.'.'.'. 1 

4. Ventilation * ** 

5. Temperature ' rn 

6. Seats and and Desks for Scholar's ' . ' ' ' ' ' « 

7. Arrangements for Teacher .... J, 

8. Apparatus .... ?' 

9. Library * . .'.'.'.'.*. *j° 

10. Yard and Internal Arrangements . '. '. '. '. ". '. \ ' §\ 

HI. Plans oe School-houses . . nn 

63 

1. Plans recommended by practical teachers and educators ... 64 

2. Plan recommended by Mr. Mann, 1838 . ' ' ' ' ' ' A 
Elustration.-Fhn for School-room for fifty-six seais and' desks 05 

« pi ™ n for union district school-houses .... 65 

3. Plans recommended by Mr. G. B. Emerson . . . ' . ra 

mustratum.-Veravective of School-house, outbuildings .'.67 

;/ 0nt L , ^? ctlon ' Fences, Trees, &c. ... 68 

Movable Blackboard . Sn 

* Double Fireplace . . . .'.'.'.'.'.' ' 79 

" Ventilating Apparatus . . 71 

« School-room for one hundred and twenty pupils 72 

a Plo k »/r School-room ^r forty-eight pupils ... 72 

4. Plans by Messrs. Town and Davis 73 



g CONTENTS. 

Plans of School-houses. 

Illustration. — Perspective of Octagonal School-house ... 73 

" Ground plan of do. do. ... 74 

" Plan of Ventilation . . 75 

" Perspective of School-house in pointed style . 76 
" Front elevation of a two story building, by H. 

Austin 76 

5. Plan by Rev. Thomas Dick, D. D 77 

Illustration — Plan of Grounds and School-room .... 77 

6. Plan by A. D. Lord, M. D 78 

Illustration. — Plan of School-room for forty-eight pupils . 78 

7. Plan by Ira Mayhew 294 

Illustration. — Plan of School-room for seventy-six pupils . 294 

8. Plans for schools of different grades and systems of instruction 79 

9. Plan for Schools on the Monitorial system, recommended by 

the British and Foreign School Society 81 

Illustration- — Plan of School-room 82 

10. Plans for Schools on the Bell or Madras system, recommend- 

ed by the National Society 82 

Illustration- — Plan of School-room 82 

11. Plans for Schools on the Mixed System, recommended by 

the Committee of Council on Education 83 

Illustration. — Plan of School-room for fifty-six pupils divided 

by a screen 83 

" Plan of School-room for three hundred pupils . 84 

" Plan of Desks 84 

12. Plans for School-room and Grounds for Infant and Primary 

Schools 85 

Illustration. — Plan of School-room and grounds, by Chambers 85 

" Rotary Swing, 86 

" Plan of School-room by Wilderspin .... 87 

" Play-ground 283 

2. Plans and Description of School-houses recently erected. . . 90 

1. District School-house in Windsor, Conn 90 

Illustration. — Perspective of House and Grounds .... 90 

" School-room with single Seats and Desks . . 91 

" Range of Seats and Desks 91 

" Top of a desk 91 

" Section of seat and desk 91 

Side elevation of the above plan modified in a 

Primary School-house in Hartford ... 92 

Ground plan of do .... 92 

2. District School-house in Hartford, Conn 93 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 93 

" Section of Desk and Chair 94 

" Range of Desks and Chairs 94 

Section of Seat and Desk for young pupils . 94 

Leaf-desk and Chair 94 

Ground plan with seats for fifty pupils ... 95 

" Movable Stand, or Easel for Blackboard . . 95 

Section of Gallery for Primary Department . 95 

" Movable Blackboard .96 

" Bench for little children 96 

" View of Whiting street Primary School-house 

in New Haven, in the same style .... 97 

3. High School-house in Middletown 98 

Illustration. — Front and Side Elevation 98 

" Transverse Section 98 

" Plan of School-room on first floor 99 



CONTENTS. 



Plans of School-houses. 



4. School-house of Public School Society in New York City . 100 

Illustration. — Public School-house, No. 17 . 101 

" Ground plan of School-room on first floor for 

Primary Department 101 

" Ground plan of School-room on second floor for 

Boys' Department 102 

" Plan of Primary School-house — Play-ground.. 103 

" " " " Second floor . 103 

" " " " Third floor . 103 

" Section of Gallery for young children . . .104 

" Sand Desk . 104 

" Desk, and Revolving cast-iron Chair .... 104 

" Monitor's Desks 104 

" Mott's Revolving cast-iron Chair 105 

" Mott's cast-iron Scroll Stanchions for desks . 105 

" Perspective of Public School-House, No. 17 .115 

" Front Elevation of Primary School-house . Ill 

Report of Committee on Seats without backs 106 

Extracts from Mott's Circular respecting Chair and Desk . 107 
History of the Public School Society of New York .... 109 

5. High School-house in Lowell 112 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 112 

" School-room on first floor 113 

6. East Grammar School-house, Salem 114 

Illustration. — Plan of first floor — Primary School .... 116 

" Plan of second floor 117 

7- Description of Latin and English High School-house in Salem 118 

Illustration- — Kimball's Chair and Desk 120 

" Desk and Seat in Newburyport High School 

for Girls 120 

8. Normal School-houses 121 

History of Normal Schools 121 

State Normal School in New York 123 

State Normal Schools in Massachusetts 132 

State Normal School-house in Massachusetts ..... 136 
Illustrations. — Bridgewater State Normal School-house . . 136 
" " " " " Front elevation 136 

" " " " " Lower story 137 

" " " " " Upper story . 138 

" Westfield State Normal School-house .... 139 

" " " " " Front elevation 139 

" " " " " Lower story . 141 

" " _ " " " Upper story . 141 

9. -Public School-houses in Boston 166 

Organization of the Public Schools of Boston 166~ 

Expenditures for School-houses and other school purposes . 171 

Expenditures for the same object in the State, 172 

Primary School-house in Sheaf street 176 

Illustration. — First floor and play-ground 177 

" Second floor 179 

" Third floor 180 

" School Chair 181 

" Section of second story ........ 181 

" Section of cold-air and smoke flues .... 182 

" Section of ventilating flues ...'... 183 

" Section exhibiting the heating and ventilating 

apparatus 184 

Ventilation of privies 186 

Modifications of the Sheaf street plan 188 

Tllusti ation- — First story ...... 188 



10 

Plans of School-houses- 



CONTENTS. 



Illustration. — Second story "... 188 

" Third story 189 

Brimmer Grammar School-house 198 

Illustration. — First floor 198 

" Second and Third floors 199 

" Chair and Desk 200 

" Chair and Desk in Eliot School 200 

" Primary School Bench 200 

" Improved School Furniture 201 

" Section of Chair and Desk in Latin High School 201 

" Ingraham's Primary School Chair 201 

" Wales' American School Chair and Desk . . 202 

" Wales' Bowdoin School Chair 203 

" Wales' Hancock School Chair 204 

" Ross' Improved School Chair and Desk . . . 205 

" Rhode Island School Desk and Seat .... 205 

Bowdoin Grammar School-house 206 

Illustration- — First and second story 207 

" Third story 207 

Quincy Grammar School-house 208 

Illustration. — First floor . 209 

10- Putnam Free School-house, Newburyport, Mass. . . . P'O 

Illustration- — Perspective • i 

" First floor ^2 

" Second floor 213 

11. High School-house in Hartford, Conn 214 

Illustration- — Perspective 218 

" Ground plan of yard, basement, &c 219 

" First floor 220 

" Second floor 220 

" Transverse section 221 

" Section of ventilating flues ....... 221 

" Hanks' Furnace 222 

" Desk and Chair . 223 

12. Free Academy in the City of New York 223 

Illustration- — Perspective 225 

Considerations and facts relating to Public High Schools . . 225 

14. Public School-houses in Providence, R. 1 233 

Primary School-house 234 

Illustration. — Perspective 234 

" Ground plan 235 

Top of Desk 236 

" Section of Seat and Bench <•'.'..... 236 

intermediate School-house ■ 236 

Illustration. — Perspective 237 

" Section of ventilation 236 

" Plan of School-room 239 

" Section of Writing Desk and Chair .... 239 

Grammar School-house 240 

Illustration. — Perspective 241 

Plan of yard, basement, &c 242 

" Plan of first floor 243 

" Plan of second floor 244 

" Transverse section . • . 245 

High School-house 246 

Illustration. — Perspective 247 

" Basement story 248 

'" First story 249 

" Second story 250 

45 Movable Desk and Chair 251 



contents 1 1 

Plans of School Houses. 

14. Public School-houses in Providence, continued . . . . . 250 
Illustration. — Vertical section of Furnace 250 

Modification of Plans of Grammar and Primary School-houses . 252 
Illustration. — Elevation of new Intermediate School-house . 252 

15. Plans of School-houses recently erected in Rhode Island . 273 

General principles observed in 274 

Plans of School-houses with one School-room, with illustra- 
tions 280 

Primary School-house in Westerly 284 

" " Allendale 285 

" " Glocester 286 

" " Barrington 288 

" " Cranston 292 

" " Clayville „ 292 

" " Centreville 294 

Plan of School-houses with two or more School rooms . . 295 

Public High School in Warren, two rooms 305 

Union School-house in Chepachet, three rooms .... 309 

" " Pawtucket, four rooms .... 310 

Village School-house in Centredale, two rooms .... 313 

" " Washington Village, two rooms . 314 

i. Plans for School-houses, containing Apartments for the Teacher. 

1. Plan for School of thirty pupils, and teachers' apartments . 260 
Illustration- — Front Elevation 262 

Side Elevation 262 

2- Plan for school-room for fifty-six pupils 260 

, Illustration. — Front Elevation 262 

" Side Elevation 262 

3. Plan for school of eighty pupils 260 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 263 

" Side Elevation 263 

4. Plan for school of one hundred and ten pupils 260 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 263 

" Side Elevation 264 

5. Plan for school of one hundred and twelve pupils .... 260 
Illustration. — Side Elevation 264 

6. Plan for school of three hundred pupils 260 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 265 

7. Plan of school for three hundred and twenty-six pupils . . 261 
Illustration. — Front Elevation 266 

8. Plan for Infant or Primary School, of 223 pupils .... 260 
Illustration- — Front Elevation . ' 267 

9. Plan for two Schools, each with 150 pupils 262 

Illustration- — Front Elevation 267 

10. Plan for two Schools, each with 200 pupils 261 

Illustration- — Front Elevation . 267 

11. Plan for three Schools, of 436 pupils 261 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 269 

12. Plan for School-house of two stories, for two schools . . .261 
Illustration. — Front Elevation 269 

13. Plan for School-house of two stories, by George Godwin . . 261 
Illustration. — Front Elevation 270' 

14. Plan of Willesdon School, H. E. Kendall, Jr 261 

Illustration. — Front Elevation 271 

IV. Apparatus 321 

.1. List of Apparatus for Primary and District Schools . . . .322 

2. " " Grammar Schools 323 

3. " " High Schools . . . 324 



J2 CONTENTS. 

Miscellaneous Suggestions. 

V. Library 379 

1. Catalogue of Books on Education 379 

2. " " of Reference in the School-room . . 

3. " " for juvenile and adult reading .... 

VI. Miscellaneous Suggestions. 

1. Plans of Ventilation and Warming. 

Plan recommended by George B. Emerson 70 

Illustration. — Double Fireplace 70 

" Ventilating Apparatus 71 

Plan recommended by Town and Davis 75 

Illustration. — Aperture and cap for ventilation 75 

Plan adopted in Washington District School-house .... 93 
Plan recommended in Minutes of Council on Education . . . 142 
Illustration. — Section of building showing openings for fresh 

air, flues for foul air, &c 142 

Mott's Receiving and Exhausting Cowl, for ventilation . . . 142 

Illustration. — Receiving Cowl 142 

" Exhausting Cowl 142 

Plan adopted in Primary School-house in New York .... 143 

Illustration. — Section, &c 143 

Plan of ventilation by Frederick Emerson 144 

Illustration. — Ejector 144 

" Injector 144 

Plans adopted in the Public School-houses of Boston in 1847 . 145 
Illustration- — Diagram, exhibiting the state of ventilation, be- 
fore the new plan was adopted . ... 148 
" Plan of ventilation introduced into the Eliot 

School-house 150 

Plan of ventilation in the Endicott School-house 151 
General plan of warming and ventilation re- 
commended 152 

Section of Chilson's Furnace 155 

" Elevation of Boston ventilating Stove . . . 155 

Section of " " '*.... 155 

Emerson's Ejecting Ventilator 156 

Injecting Ventilator 157 

" Elevation of Ventiducts 158 

Cold air ducts and smoke-flues 159 

Section of building of two stories, showing situ- 
ation of furnace, stove, air ducts, &c . . 159 

" First floor of do 160 

" Second floor do 160 

Rules of the School Committee relative to the use of stoves, 

. furnaces, and ventilators 161 

Hosking on the ventilation of buildings 162 

Plan adopted in a Primary School-house in Boston 182 

Illustration. — Section of cold air and smoke flues .... 182 

Section of ventilating flues 183 

Plan of arranging heating apparatus .... 185 

" Ventilation of privies 186 

Plan adopted in the High School-house in Hartford .... 216 
Illustration. — Plan showing situation of Furnaces, ventilating 

flues 219 

Section showing ventilating flues, &c. . . . 218 

" _ Hanks' Furnace . 220 

Plan adopted in the Providence Grammar Schools .... 236 
Illustration- — Section of ventilators ......... 236 



CONTENTS. 



13 



Miscellaneous Suggestions. 



Illustration- — Section of furnace 250 

Plan adopted in District School-house in Centermill .... 313 
Illustration. — Ground plan, showing smoke and ventilation flues 313 

Millar's Ventilating School Stove 

Mott's " " " . . . . 290 

Regulations respecting ventilation, fires, &c, in Manual of Pub- 
lic School Society 392 

. School Furniture, Fixtures, <5fc. 

Hints respecting Blackboards 375 

Illustration. — Movable Blackboard > 375 

" Movable Stand or Easel 375 

" Table convertible into Blackboard .... 374 

Directions for making black plaster 376 

Ingraham's Composition for black surface 375 

Slate Blackboard 376 

Canvas Blackboard 376 

Directions for making Crayons 376 

Desks, Seats, and Chairs for Scholars 

Illustration- — Plan of Desk, with seat attached, for one or two 

scholars, made of wood 91,236 

Plan of Desk with seat attached, with iron ends 

or support 120,205 

Plan of Desk, with wood ends or support . . 91 

" " used in Providence 236 

" " Eliot's School, Boston 200 

" cast iron ends — Kimball . 120 

" " Boston Latin School 201 

" " Wales' . . 202 

" " Ross' . . .205 

" " Mott's . . 105 

Plan of a Chair with cast iron support — Mott's 105 

" " Providence . 239 

* " Wales' . . 202 

" " Kimballs' . 115 

" " Ross' . . 205 

Movable Desk and Seat used in Providence . 250 

Primary School Bench used in Boston . . 201 

Primary School or Sand Desk used in New York 104 

Boston Primary School Chair 201 

Gallery for Infant or Primary School. . 95 104 

Desks, &c. for Teachers 272 

Illustration. — Plans of &c 272 

3. Regulations for the use and Preservation of School-houses, 

Furniture, <5fc 391 

Rules adopted by School Committees in Rhode Island . . .391 
Regulations in Manual of Public School Society of N. York . 392 

Regulations in Chauncy-Hall School, Boston 396 

Mr. Thayer's Remarks respecting 398 

4. Dedicatory Exercises 402 

School celebration in Salem, Mass . 402 

Address by George B. Emerson 402 

" G. F. Thayer 405 

Dedication at Pawtucket, Rhode Island . 408 

Address of President Wayland 408 

Address of Rev. Mr. Osgood 414 

Dedication of High School in Cambridge, Mass 417 

Address of President Everett 41ft 

5. Priced Catalogue of Books on Education, Apparatus, Maps, <j-c 324 
Index 



NTRODUCTION, 



Lest the author should be thought to exaggerate the defi 
ciences of school-houses as they have been heretofore constructed, 
and as they are now almost universally found wherever public 
attention has not been earnestly, perseveringly, and judiciously 
called to their improvement, the following extracts from recent 
official school documents are inserted, respecting the condition 
of school-houses in States where public education has received 
the most attention. The facts herein stated show that, while 
some advance has been made within a few years past, both in 
public opinion and public action, still the standard of actual 
attainment is very low, and the disastrous consequences of neg- 
lect are not sufficiently, or generally appreciated. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 
/—i 

Extracts from the '(^Report of the Secretary (Hon. Horace Mann) of 
the Board of Education for 1846."~J 

"For years the condition of this class of edifices, throughout the State, 
taken as a whole, had been growing worse and worse. Time and decay 
were always doing their work, while only here and there, with wide 
spaces between, was any notice taken of their silent ravages ; and, in 
still fewer instances, were these ravages repaired. Hence, notwith- 
standing the improved condition of all other classes of buildings, general 
dilapidation was the fate of these. Industry and the increasing pecu- 
niary ability which it creates, had given Lcomfort, neatness, and even 
elegance to private dwellings^ Public spirit had erected commodious 
and costly churches. Counties, though largely taxed, had yet uncom- 
plainingly paid for handsome and spacious court-houses and public offices. 
Humanity had been at work, and had made generous and noble provision 
for the pauper, the blind, the deaf and dumb, the insane. Even jails and 
houses of correction,-+the receptacles of felons and other offenders 
against the laws of God and man, had, in many instances, been trans- 
formed, by the more enlightened spirit of the age, into comfortable and 
healthful residences. The Genius of architecture, as if she had made 
adequate provision for all mankind, extended her sheltering care over the 
brute creation. Better stables were provided for cattle, better folds for 

^heep, and even the unclean beasts felt the improving hand of reform. 

(jBut in the mean time the school-houses, to which the children should 
have been wooed by every attraction, were suffered to go where age and 
She elements would carry "them; 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

In 1837, not one third part of the Public School-houses in Massachu- 
setts would have been considered tenantable by any decent family, ou + 
of the poor-house, or in it. As an incentive to neatness and decency 
children were sent to a house whose walls and floors were indeed painted, 
but they were painted, all too thickly, by smoke and filth ; whose benches 
and doors were covered with carved work, but they were the gross and 
obscene carvings of impure hands; whose vestibule, after the oriental 
fashion, was converted into a veranda, but the metamorphosis which 
changed its architectural style, consisted in laying it bare of its outer 
covering. The modesty and chastity of the sexes, at their tenderest age, 
was to be cultivated and cherished, in places, which oftentimes were as 
destitute of all suitable accommodations, as a camp or a caravan. The 
brain was to be worked amid gases that stupefied it. The virtues of 
generosity and forbearance were to be acquired where sharp discomfort 
and pain tempted each one to seize more than his own share of relief, 
and thus to strengthen every selfish propensity. 

At the time referred to, the school-houses in Massachusetts were an 
opprobrium to the State; and if there be any one who thinks this 
expression too strong, he may satisfy himself of its correctness by 
inspecting some of the few specimens of them which still remain. 

The earliest effort at reform was directed towards this class of build- 
ings. By presenting the idea of taxation, this measure encountered the 
opposition of one of the strongest passions of the age. Not only the 
sordid and avaricious, but even those, whose virtue of frugality, by the 
force of habit, had been imperceptibly sliding into the vice of parsimony, 
felt the alarm. Men of fortune, without children, and men who had 
reared a family of children, and borne the expenses of their education, 
fancied they saw something of injustice in being called to pay for the 
education of others ; and too often their fancies started up into spectres 
of all imaginable oppression and wrong. The school districts were the 
scene where the contending parties arrayed themselves against each 
other; the school-house itself their arena. From time immemorial, it 
had been the custom to hold school district meetings in the school-house. 
Hither, according to ancient usage, the voters were summoned to come. 
In this forum, the question was to be decided, whether a new edifice 
should be erected, or Avhether the ability of the old one to stand upon its 
foundations for another season, should be tried. Regard for the health, 
the decent manners, the intellectual progress and the moral welfare of the 
children, common humanity, policy, duty, the highest worldly interests of 
the race, were marshalled on one side, demanding a change ; selfishness, 
cupidity, insensibility to the wants and the welfare of others, and that 
fallacious plea, that because the school-house had answered the purpose 
so long, therefore it would continue to answer it still longer, — an argument 
which would make all houses, and roads, and garments, and every thing 
made by human hands, last forever, — resisted the change. The dis 
graceful contrast between the school-house and all other edifices, whether 
public or private, in its vicinity ; the immense physical and spiritual sacri- 
fices which its condition inflicted upon the rising generation, were often 
and unavailingly urged ; but there was always one argument which the 
advocates for reform could use with irresistible effect, — the school-house 
itself. Cold winds, whistling through crannies and chinks and broken 
windows, told with merciless effect upon the opponents. The ardor of 
opposition was cooled by snow-blasts rushing up through the floor. Pain- 
imparting seats made it impossible for the objectors to listen patiently 
even to arguments on their own side ; and it was obvious that the tears 
they shed were less attributable to any wrongs which they feared, than 
to the volumes of smoke which belched out with every gust of wind, from 



SCHOOL HOUSES AS THEY ARE. \<J 

broken funnels and chimneys. Such was the case in some houses. In 
others, opposite evils prevailed ; and the heat and stifling air and nau- 
seating effluvia were such as a grown man has hardly been compelled to 
live in, since the time of Jonah. 

Though insensible to arguments addressed to reason and conscience, 
yet the senses and muscles and nerves of this class of men were less 
hardened than their hearts ; and the colds and cramps, the exhaustion and 
debility, which they carried home, worked mightily for their conversion to 
truth. Under such circumstances, persuasion became, compulsory. 

Could the leaders of the opposition have transferred /"he debate to some 
commodious public hall, or to their own spacious and elegant mansions, 
they might have bid defiance to humanity and remained masters of the 
field. But the party of reform held them relentlessly to the battle-ground ; 
and there the cause of progress triumphed, on the very spot where it had 
been so long dishonored. 

During the five years immediately succeeding the report made by the 
Board of Education to the Legislature, on the subject of school-houses, 
the sums expended for the erection or repair of this class of buildings fell 
but little short of seven hundred thousand dollars. Since that time, from 
the best information obtained, I suppose the sum expended on this one 
item to be about one hundred and fifty thousand dollars annually. 
Every year adds some new improvement to the construction and arrange- 
ment of these edifices. 

In regard to this great change in school-houses, — it would hardly be too 
much to call it a revolution, — the school committees have done an excel- 
lent work, — or rather, they have begun it ; — it is not yet done. Their 
annual reports, read in open town meeting, or printed and circulated 
among the inhabitants, afterwards embodied in the Abstracts and distri- 
buted to all the members of the government, to all towns and school com- 
mittees have enlightened and convinced a State. 



NEW-YORK. 

Extract^oto the " Annual Report of tlie Superintendent (Hon. Samuel 

Young) of Common Schools, made to the Legislature, January 13, 

1844." 

"The whole number of school-houses visited and inspected by the 
county superintendents during the year was 9,368: of which 7,685 were of 
framed wood ; 446 of brick ; 523 of stone, and 707 of logs. Of these, 
3,160 were found in good repair ; 2,870 in ordinary and comfortable repair, 
and 3,319 in bad repair, or totally unfit for school purposes. The number 
furnished with more than one room was 544, leaving 8,795 with one room 
only. The number furnished with suitable play-grounds is 1,541 ; the 
number not so furnished, 7,313. The number furnished with a single 
privy is, 1,810 ; those with privies containing separate apartments for male 
and female pupils, 1,012 ; while the number of those not furnished with 
any privy whatever, is 6,423. The number suitably furnished with con- 
venient seats, desks, &c, is reported at 3,282, and the number not so fur- 
nished, at 5,972. The number furnished with proper facilities for ventila- 
tion is stated at 1,518 ; while the number not provided with these essen- 
tial requisites of health and comfort is 7,889. 

No subject connected with the interests of elementary instructioa 
affords a source of such mortifying and humiliating reflections as that of 
the condition of a large portion of the school-houses, as presented in the 
above enumeration. One-third only of the whole number visited, were 
found in good repair : another third in ordinary and comfortable conditioa 

2 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

only in this respect — in other words, barely sufficient for the convenience 
and accommodation of the teachers and pupils ; while the remainder, con- 
sisting of 3.319, were to all intents and purposes unfit for the reception of 
man or beast. 

But 544 out of 9,368 houses visited, contained more than one room ; 
7,313 were destitute of any suitable play-ground; nearly six thousand 
were unfurnished with convenient seats and desks ; nearly eight thousand 
destitute of the proper facilities for ventilation ; and upwards of six thou- 
sand without a privy of any sort ; while of the remainder but about one 
thousand were pro Aded with privies containing different apartments for 
male and female pupils ! Andjrt is in these miserable abodes of accumu- 
lated dirt and filth, deprived of wholesome air, or exposed without adequate 
protection to the assaults of the elements, with no facilities for necessary 
exercise or relaxation, no convenience for prosecuting their studies/, 
crowded together on benches not admitting of a moment's rest in any 
position, and debarred the possibility of yielding to the ordinary calls of 
nature without violent inroads upon modesty and shame ; that upwards 
of two hundred thousand children, scattered over various parts of the 
State, are compelled to spend an average period of eight months during 
each year of their pupilage ! \Here the first lessons of human life, the 
incipient principles of morality, and ;the rules of social intercourse are to 
be impressed upon the plastic mind7\ The boy is here to receive the 
model of his permanent character, a*nd to imbibe the elements of his 
future career; and here the instinctive delicacy of the young female, one 
of the characteristic ornaments of the sex, is to be expanded into matu- 
rity by precept and example ! |Is it strange, under such circumstances, 
that an early and invincible repugnance to the acquisition of knowledge 
is imbibed by the youthful mind ; that the school-house is regarded with 
unconcealed aversion and disgust, and that parents who have acy desire 
to preserve the health and the morals of their children, exclude J;hem 
from the district school, and provide instruction for them elsewhere?^ 

If legislation could reach and remedy the evil, the law-making power 
would be earnestly invoked. But where the ordinary mandates of 
humanity, and the laws of parental feeling written by the finger of 
heaven on the human heart, are obliterated or powerless, all statutory 
provisions would be idle and vain. In some instances during the past 
year, comfortable school-houses have been erected to supply the place of 
miserable and dilapidated tenements which for years had been a disgrace 
to the inhabitants. Perhaps the contagion of such worthy examples may 
spread ; and that which seems to have been beyond the influence of the 
ordinary impulses of humanity, may be accomplished by the power of 
example or the dread of shame. 

The expense of constructing and maintaining convenient buildings, 
and all other proper appliances for the education of the young, is a mere 
trifle when contrasted with the beneficial results which inevitably follow. 

Of all the expenditures which are calculated to subserve the wants or 
gratify the caprices of man, there are none which confer such important 
and durable blessings as those which are applied to the cultivation and 
expansion of the moral and intellectual powers. It is by such cultivation 
that human happiness is graduated, and that from the most debased of 
the savage tribes, nation rises above nation in the scale of prosperity and 
civilization. The penuriousness which has been manifested on this sub- 
ject, and the reckless profligacy exhibited on others, is strongly charac- 
teristic of the past. In future times, when the light of science shall be 
more widely diffused, and when the education of the young shall claim 
and receive the consideration it deserves, a retrospection to the records of 
the past will exhibit preceding generations in no enviable point of view. 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. JQ 

The following remarks and extracts from the Reports of the special 
visiters appointed by the State Superintendent (Hon. John C. Spencer) 
in each of the counties, for 1840, and for 1841, are taken from Part I of 
that admirable work, the " School and the Schoolmaster," Part I, by Prof. 
(now Bishop) Potter, and Part II, by George B. Emerson, Esq., of 
Boston. 

" I ask, then, first, are our common schools places of agreeable resort, 
calculated to promote health, and to connect pleasant associations with 
study ? 

Ans. Say the visiters, in one of the oldest and most affluent towns of 
the south-eastern section of the state, 'It may be remarked, generally 
that the school-houses are built in the old style, are too small to be con- 
venient, and, with one exception, too near the public roads, generally 
having no other play-ground.' Twelve districts were visited in this 
town. — See Report of Visiters (1840), p. 47. 

Say the visiters of another large and wealthy town in the central part 
of the state, ' Out of the 20 schools they visited, 10 of the school-houses 
were in bad repair, and many of them not worth repairing. In none 
were any means provided for the ventilation of the room. In many of 
the districts, the school-rooms are too small for the number of scholars. 
The location of the school-houses is generally pleasant. There are, how- 
ever, but few instances where play-grounds are attached, and their condi- 
tion as to privies is very bad. The arrangement of seats and desks is 
generally very bad, and inconvenient to both scholars and teachers. 
Most of them are. without backs.'— P. 28 (Rep., 1840.) 

From another town in the north-western part of the state, containing a 
large population, and twenty-two school districts, the visiters report of 
district No. 1, that the school-house is large and commodious, but scan- 
dalously cut and marked ; the school-room but tolerably clean ; the privies 
very filthy, and no means of ventilation but by opening the door or 
raising the window. No. 2 has an old school-house ; the room not clean; 
seats and desks well arranged, but cut and marked ; no ventilation ; the 
children healthy, but not clean. No. 3 has an old frame building, but 
warm and comfortable. No. 4 has a very poor, dilapidated old frame 
school-house, though the inhabitants are generally wealthy for that 
country. No. 5 has a frame school-house, old and in bad condition; 
school-room not clean ; seats and desks not convenient ; No. 6 has a frame 
school-house, old and in bad condition ; the school-room is not clean ; no 
cup or pail for drinking water. No. 7 has a log school-house, in a very 
bad condition; desks and seats are inconvenient. 'Here, too,' say the 
visiters, ' society is good, and people mostly in easy circumstances, but 
the school-house very unbecoming such inhabitants. It does not com- 

Kare well with their dwellings.' No. 8, say the visiters, is ' a hard case.' 
To. 9 has a frame house in good condition and in a pleasant location, but 
is ' too small for the number of children.' No. 10 has a log school-house. 
No. 11 has a 'log shanty for a school-house, not fit for any school.' No. 
12 a log house. No. 13 has a log shanty, in bad condition, not pleasantly 
located, school-room not clean. 'The school-house or hovel in this dis- 
trict is so cold in winter, so small and inconvenient, that little can be done 
towards preserving order or advancing education among so many schol- 
ars ; some poor inhabitants and some in good circumstances ; might have 
a better school-house.' No. 14 has a good frame house, in good condi- 
tion, pleasant location, with ample and beautiful play-ground ; school-room 
in clean condition. The visiters add, ' In this district the inhabitants are 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

poor, and the scholars attend irregularly ; the house was built by one man 
in low circumstances, who has a large family of boys to educate ; a noble 
act.'' No. 15 has a frame house, in a good, warm, and comfortable con- 
dition, with a pleasant and retired location and a play-ground. No. 16 has 
a log shanty for a school-house. No. 17, '• no regular school-house other 
than some old log house.' No. 18, no school-house. No. 19, a log shanty. 
No. 20 and 21 are new districts. No. 22 has a frame school-house, in 
good repair and pleasantly situated. Thus, out of twenty-two school- 
houses, not more than five are reported as respectable or comfortable ; 
none have any proper means of ventilation ; eight, are built of logs ; and 
but one of them, according to the visiters, has a privy. — Report (1840), 
p. 142. 

It is also a subject of frequent complaint in these reports, that the seats 
are too high (too high, say the visiters in one case, for a man of six feet, 
and all alike), and are, therefore, uncomfortable for the children, as well 
as productive of much disorder. ' We have found,' says the report from 
one town, ' except in one school, all the seats and desks much too high, 
and in that one they were recently cut down at our recommendation. In 
many of our schools, a considerable number of children are crowded into 
the same seat, and commonly those seated beyond the entering place 
have no means of getting at their seats but by climbing over those 
already seated, and to the ruin of all regard to cleanliness.' 

' We have witnessed much uneasiness, if not suffering, among the 
children, from the dangling of their legs from a high seat, and, with the 
one exception, have seen them attempting to write on desks so high that, 
instead of the elbow resting to assist the hand in guiding the pen, the 
whole arm has, of necessity, been stretched out ; for, if they did not this, 
they must write rather by guess than sight, unless some one may have 
the fortune to be near-sighted, and, from this defect, succeed in seeing his 
work. This is a great evil, and ought to be remedied before we complain 
of the incompetency of teachers.' — Report (1S41), p. 38. 

These specimens will serve to show how far many of the school- 
houses, in this state, are pleasant places of resort, or study, and in what 
degree they are likely to inspire a respect for education, or a desire to 
enjoy and improve its advantages. [The condition and aspect of the 
building, with its appendages and surrounding landscape, are inseparably 
associated, in a child's mind, with his first day at school, and his first 
thoughts about education^ Is it well, then, that these earliest, most 
lasting, and most controlling associations, should be charged with so 
much that is offensive ? Is it to be expected, that the youthful mind can 
regard that as the cause, next to religion, most important of all others, 
which is upheld and promoted, in such buildings, as the district school- 
house usually is 1 Among the most comfortless and wretched tenements, 
which the pupil ever enters, he thinks of it with repugnance ; the tasks 
which it imposes, he dreads ; and he at length takes his leave of it, as of 
a prison, from which he is but too happy to escape. 

This seems to me to be the greatest evil connected with our school- 
houses. But their deleterious effect on health, is also to be considered. 
Air which has been once respired by the lungs, parts with its healthy 
properties, and is no longer fit for use. Hence a number of persons, 
breathing the air of the same apartment, soon contaminate it, unless the 
space is ver}? large, or unless there is some provision for the introduction 
of fresh, as well as the exclusion of foul air. This ventilation is espe- 
cially important for school-houses, since the}'' are usually small in propor- 
tion to the number of scholars ; the scholars remain together a long while 
at once, and are less cleanly in their personal habits than adults. Yet, 
important as it is, probably not one common school in fifty, in this state. 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 



21 



will be found supplied with adequate means to effect it. The cracks and 
crevices, which abound in our school-houses, admit quite enough of. cold 
air in winter, but not enough of fresh. What is wanted at that season, 
for both health and economy, is a constant supply of fresh warm air ; and 
this is easily obtained by causing the air, as it enters from without, to 
pass through heated flues, or over heated surfaces. 

It is also important, to the health of scholars and teachers in common 
schools, that the rooms should be larger and have higher ceilings ; and 
that much more scrupulous attention should be paid to the cleanliness of 
both the room and its inmates. ' An evil,' say the visiters of one of the 
towns, ' greater than the variety of school-books or the want of necessary 
apparatus, is having school-rooms so unskilfully made and arranged. 
Of our 13 school-rooms, only 3 are ten feet high, and of the residue only 
one is over eight feet. The stupidity arising from foul, oft-breathed air, 
is set down as a grave charge against the capacity of the scholars or the 
energy of the teacher. A room for 30 children, allowing 12 square feet 
for each child, is low at 10 feet, and for every additional ten children an 
extra foot in elevation is absolutely necessary, to enable the occupants ol 
the room to breathe freely.' — Report (1841), p. 38. 

Are common schools so conducted, as to promote habits of neatness and 
order ; and cultivate good manners and refined feelings ? 

From the quotations already made from the reports of visiters, it 
appears that the school-rooms, in many cases, were not clean ; and the 
same thing is often alleged of the children. I will add but one other 
passage, to which I happen to open on p. 39 of the Report (1840). It 
relates to a town containing 24 school districts, of which 16 were visited. 
Of these 16, one quarter are represented to have been almost entirely 
regardless of neatness and order, viz.: No. 4 [ has a dirty school-room, 
and the appearance of the children was dirty and sickly.' No. 2 'has a 
dirty school-room, inconveniently arranged, arid ventilated all over ;' the 
children ' rather dirty,' and no means of supplying fresh water except 
from the neighbor's pails and cups. No. 3 has • an extremely dirty school- 
room, without ventilation, the children not clean, and no convenience for 
water.' No. 24 ' has a school-house out of repair, dirty, and inconvenient 
in its arrangements.' 

It is also a subject of almost universal complaint, that the school-houses 
are without privies. On an average, probably not more than one in 
twenty, of the school-houses throughout the state, has this appendage ; 
and in these, it was almost invariably found, by the visiters, to be in a bad 
state. This fact speaks volumes, of the attention, which is paid at these 
schools, to delicacy of manners, and refinement of feeling. None but the 
very poorest families think of living without such a convenience at home; 
and a man, who should build a good dwelling-house, but provide no place 
for retirement when performing the most private offices of nature, would 
be thought to give the clearest evidence of a coarse and brutal mind. 
Yet respectable parents allow their children to go to a school where this 
is the case ; and where the evil is greatly aggravated bv the fact, that 
numbers of both sexes are collected, and that, too, at an age of extreme 
levity, and when the youthful mind is prone to the indulgence of a pru- 
rient imagination. Says one of the visiters (Report, 1840, p. 77), 'In 
most cases in this town, the scholars, male and female, are turned promis- 
cuously and simultaneously into the public highway, without the shelter 
of so much (in the old districts) as a ' stump' for a covert to the calls of 
nature. The baneful tendency, on the young and pliant sensibilities, of 
this barbarous custom, are truly lamentable.' So the visiters of one of 
the largest and oldest counties : ' We regret to perceive that many of the 
districts have neglected to erect privies for the use of the children at 



22 INTRODUCTION. 

school. This is a lamentable error. The injury to the taste and morais 
of the children which will naturally result from this neglect, is of a char- 
acter much more serious than the discomfort which is obviously produced 
by it.'— {Report, 1840, p. 131.)" 



VERMONT. 

Extract from the " First Annual Report of the State Superintendent 

(Hon. Horace Eaton,) of Common Schools, October, 1846," made to the 

Legislature. 

" It might occur to any one in travelling through the State, that our 
school-houses are almost uniformly located in an uninteresting and un- 
suitable spot, and that the buildings themselves too generally exhibit an 
unfavorable, and even repulsive aspect. Yet by giving some license to 
the imagination it might be supposed that, notwithstanding their location 
and external aspect were so forbidding, the internal appearance would be 
more cheerful and pleasant — or at least, that the arrangement and con- 
struction within would be comfortably adapted to the purposes which the 
school-house was intended to fulfil. But an actual inspection of by far 
the greatest number of the school-houses in the State, by County Super- 
intendents, discloses the unpleasant fact, that oriinarily the interior does 
but correspond with the exterior, or is, if possible, still worse. A very 
large proportion of these buildings throughout the State must be set. 
down as in a miserable condition. The melancholy fact is established by 
the concurrent report of all our County Superintendents, that in every 
quarter of the State they are, as a class, altogether unsuited to their 
high purposes. Probably nine-tenths of them are located upon the line 
of the highway ; and as the geographical centre of the district usually 
determines their situation, aside from the relation with the road, it is a 
rare chance that one is not placed in an exposed, unpleasant and uncom- 
fortable spot. In some cases — especially in villages — their location 
seems to be determined by the worth, or rather by the worthlesmess of 
the ground on which they stand — that being selected which is of the 
least value for any other purpose. Seldom or never do we see our school- 
houses surrounded by trees or shrubbery, to serve the purpose which 
they might serve so well — that of delighting the eye, gratifying the 
taste, and contributing to the physical comfort, by shielding from the 
scorching sun of summer, and breaking the bleak winds of winter. And 
from buildings thus situated and thus exposed, pupils are turned out into 
the streets for their sports, and for other purposes still more indispensable. 
What better results could be expected under such a system than that 
our ' girls should become hoydens and our boys blackguards?' Indeed 
it would be a happy event, if in no case results still more melancholy and 
disastrous than this were realized. 

But this notice of ordinary deficiencies does not cover the whole ground 
of error in regard to the situation of school-houses. In some cases they 
are brought into close connection with positive nuisances. In a case 
which has fallen under the Superintendent's own personal observation, 
one side of the school-house forms part of the fence of a hog-yard, into 
which, during the summer, the calves from an extensive dairy establish- 
ment have been thrown from time to time, (disgusting and revolting 
spectacle !) to be rent and devoured before the eyes of teacher and pu- 
pils — except such portions of the mutilated and mangled carcasses as 
were left by the animals to go to decay, as they lay exposed to the sun 
and storm. It is true the windows on the side of the building adjoining 
the yard, were generally observed to be closed, in order to shut out the 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 23 

almost insupportable stench which arose from the decomposing remains. 
But this closure of windows could, in no great degree, ' abate the nui- 
sance ;' for not a breath of air could enter the house from any direction 
but it must come saturated with the disgusting and sickening odor that 
loaded the atmosphere around. It needs no professional learning to tell 
the deleterious influence upon health, which must be exerted by such an 
agency, operating for continuous hours. 

Such cases, it is hoped and believed, are exceedingly rare. But it is 
much to be feared that the usual exemption enjoyed by teachers and pu- 
pils, from even such outrages upon their senses and sensibilities, as have 
been detailed, is to be attributed to the fact that such arrangements are 
not ordinarily convenient, rather than to any prevailing conviction of 
their impropriety, or any general and settled purpose to avoid them. 
The case is named as at least strong evidence that the pertinency of con- 
siderations, involving a regard either to taste, comfort, or even health it- 
self, is generally overlooked or disregarded, in fixing upon a site for a 
school-house. At all events these purposes are all exposed to be violated 
under the prevailing neglect of districts to secure the possession of suf- 
ficient ground for a yard around the school-house. But it would seem 
unnecessary to urge, beyond the bare suggestion, the importance of pro- 
viding for school-houses, a comfortable location, a sufficient yard and 
play-ground, a wood-house and other out-buildings, a convenient access 
to water, and the surrounding of the premises with shade-trees which 
might serve for shelter, as well as delight the eye, and aid to render the 
school-house — what it should be — one of the most attracting and delight- 
ful places of resort upon the face of the earth. It should be such, that 
when the child shall have changed into the gray-haired man, and his 
memory wanders back through the long vista of vanished years, seeking 
for some object on which it may repose, this shall be the spot where it 
shall love to rest. 

In the construction of the school-house — embracing its material, style 
of architecture, and finish — as little care and taste are exhibited, as 
might be expected from the indifference manifested in regard to its loca- 
tion and surrounding circumstances. Cheapness of construction seems, 
in most, cases, to be the great governing principle, which decides upon 
its materials, its form, and all its internal arrangements. No complaint 
on this score could justly be made, if the general condition of these build- 
ings Avere clearly and fairly attributed to want of ability. But while our 
other edifices, both public and private, have improved in elegance, con- 
venience, and taste, with the increasing wealth of our citizens, our school- 
houses linger in the rear and bear the impress of a former age. In this 
respect. 

' That which in days of yore we were 
We at the present moment are. ' 

Low walls might be instanced as one of the prevailing defects in 
school-house architecture. The quantity of air contained in a school- 
room of the usual height, is so small as to be soon exhausted of its oxy- 
gen ; and the dullness, headache and depression which succeed to this 
result, are but too well known and too often felt, although they may fail 
of being attributed to their true cause. And why should our children be 
robbed of a comfortable supply of that pure and wholesome air, with 
which our Creator, in the largeness and richness of his bounty, has sur- 
rounded the earth and filled the sky ? But if the condition of the house 
is such, as in part to prevent the injurious effects arising from a deficiency 
of pure air, by means of broken windows and gaping crevices — then 
colds, coughs and as the ultimate and crowning result — consumption — 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

(and of this disease, what thousands of cases have had their foundations 
laid in the school-house !) must be the consequence of this sort of ex 
posure. This is true in regard to all classes and conditions of pupils. 
But it should be distinctly kept in mind, although it is ordinarily overlooked 
and forgotten, that children accustomed to be comfortably protected 
against cold or vicissitudes of temperature, at home, will inevitably suffer 
the more when exposed to them in the school-house. And here is an ad- 
ditional reason why these structures should be improved, as our dwelling 
houses are generally becoming more comfortable. 

But there is not room here for details — not even to exhibit this topic in 
all its important bearings. And it has been thus hinted at only to prove 
that the general charge of faulty construction is not wholly unfounded. 

It was the purpose of the Superintendent to discuss at some length, 
the pernicious influence exerted, both upon the health of pupils, and 
their progress in learning, by the miserable structures in which the State 
abounds, but the extent of the remarks already made precludes it. 

One cause of the prevailing fault in regard to the construction and in- 
ternal arrangement of school-houses, doubtless, is the want of proper 
models. Districts, when about erecting a school-house, cannot well do 
more than follow the examples before them. To form the plan of a 
proper school-house— one well adapted to all the various ends which 
should be sought, such as the convenience, comfort, and health of pupils, 
convenience for supervision and conduct of the school, and facilities for 
the most successful prosecution of study — would require such an extent 
of observation and so full an acquaintance with the laws of health, of 
mind and morals — and then such a skill in designing a structure in which 
all the necessary conditions should be observed and secured, that it would 
be unreasonable to expect that a district could command them, without 
an opportunity to avail itself of the experience and observation of others. 
And districts have almost universally felt this lack of guidance. But it 
is believed that hereafter, information on the subject of school-house t 
architecture, will be more accessible ; and if, as a first step, some one 
district in every town in the State would avail itself of the necessary 
information, and make a vigorous effort to secure the erection of a well 
located, well planned, and well constructed school-house, they would per- 
form an act of high public beneficence, as well as confer upon themselves 
an inestimable blessing. And shall not one or two years realize the ac- 
complishment of this noble purpose ? What district will lead the van 1 



NEW HAMPSHIEE. 

Extracts from the " Report of the Commissioner, {Prof Haddock, of 

Dartmouth College) of Common Schools, to the Legislature of New 

Hampshire, June Session, 1847." 

" The success of our whole system depends as much on a thorough re- 
form in the construction and care of school-houses as upon any other 
single circumstance whatever. 

It is wonderful, and when their attention is called to it, strikes the in- 
habitants of the Districts themselves as|really unaccountable, that care- 
ful and anxious parents have been content to confine their children for so 
many hours a day through a large part of the severest and most trying 
seasons of the year, in houses so ill constructed, so badly ventilated, so 
imperfectly warmed, so dirty, so instinct with vulgar ideas, and so utterly 
repugnant to all habits of neatness, thought, taste, or purity^ There are 
multitudes of houses in the State, not only inconveniently located, and 
awkwardly planned, but absolutely dangerous to health and morals. 



« 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 25 

And it has struck me with the greater surprise, that this is true not only of 
the thinly peopled parts of the State, but of flourishing villages. In one 
of the largest towns the principal District School was kept, the last win- 
ter, in a dilapidated, rickety, uncouth, slovenly edifice, hardly more com- 
fortable than some barns within sight of it. In one enterprising village 
the school-house, as I looked at it from a little distance, appeared deci- 
dedly the shabbiest and most neglected building, not to say dwelling, 
within reach of my eye. I have been in houses, which no scrubbing 
could keep clean; they were never made to be clean: and this, in places, 
where private taste is adorning the town with the ornaments of architec- 
ture and enriching the country with the fruits of rural industry. 

It is, however, encouraging to find, that a better feeling is coming to 
prevail on this subject. Many districts are rebuilding, and, in most in- 
stances, upon an improved plan. Some examples have been set of good 
'udgment and liberal expenditure for this important object. And it is 
.oped, that other districts will be stimulated to imitate them. 
Whenever a new house is to be erected, it should first be carefully lo- 
cated, so as best to accommodate the whole district, and by all means, on 
an open, healthy, agreeable site, with ample room about it on all sides, 
and out of the way of floods of water or of dust. The young spirit loves 
the free air and the cheerful day ; and when confined, as for some six 
hours it must be, the confinement should be as little unnatural and un- 
wholesome as possible. The cheapest medicine for the body is good air 
and plenty of room ; and the most indispensable pre-requisite to sane 
thjught is a beautiful and happy place to think in. The house itself 
should be large ; so large that the vacant floor may about equal the 
space occupied by the seats. The difference of ten feet in length is not 
great in point of expense; in point of comfort it may be incalculable. 
The walls should be twelve feet high at least; and an opening made in 
the ceiling for the escape of the overheated and corrupted air. This 
should be made to be closed at pleasure. Not more than two scholars 
should sit on one seat; and the seats should be roomy and easy. These 
are the great points in a school-house. If the architecture is neat, and 
the grounds tastefully laid out, and every depredation immediately re- 
paired, every stain removed at once, not only will the house answer the 
essential purposes of health and comfort, but prove a material auxiliary 
in elevating the minds and correcting the habits of those who receive 
their education in it." 



CONNECTICUT. 

Extract from the " First Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board 
of Commissioners of Common Schools, for 1838-39. 
\^In the whole field of school improvement there is no more pressing 
need of immediate action than herefj I present with much hesitation, 
the result of my examinations as to several hundred school-houses in dif- 
ferent parts of the State. I will say, generally, that the location of the 
school-house, instead of being retired, shaded, healthy, attractive, is in 
some cases decidedly unhealthy, exposed freely to the sun and storm, and 
in nearly all, on one or more public streets, where the passing of objects, 
the noise and the dust, are a perpetual annoyance to teacher and scholar, 
— that no play-ground is afforded for the scholar except the highway, — 
that the size is too small for even the average attendance of the scholars, 
— that not one in a hundred has any other provision for a constant supply 
of that indispensable element of health and life, pure air, except the 
rents and crevices which time and wanton mischief have made ; that the 



2(3 INTRODUCTION. 

seats and desks are not, in a majority of cases, adapted to children of different 
sizes and ages, but on the other hand are calculated to induce physical 
deformity, and ill-health, and not in a few instances (I state this on the 
authority of physicians who were professionally acquainted with the 
cases.) have actually resulted in this — and that in the mode of warming 
rooms, sufficient regard is not had either to the comfort and health of the 
scholar, or to economy. 

That 1 have not stated these deficiencies too strongly. I beg leave to 
efer you to the accompanying returns, respecting the condition of school- 
ouses in more than eight hundred districts in the State, and in more 
than forty particulars in each. These returns were made from actual 
inspection and measurement of school-houses by teachers and others. 
An abstract of them in part will be found annexed, together with ex- 
tracts from letters received from school officers on the subject. I might 
accumulate evidence of the necessity of improvement here for every 
district in the State. Without improvement in many particulars which 
concern the health, the manners and morals of those who attend school, 
it is in vain to expect that parents who put a proper estimate, not only 
on the intellectual, but the physical and moral culture of their children, 
will send to the district school. |dt is not to be wondered at that children 
acquire a distaste for stud™ and a reluctance to attend school, so long as 
school-houses are associated with hours of prolonged weariness and actual 
suffering from a scanty supply of pure air, and seats and desks so ar- 
ranged and constructed as to war against their physical organization. 
These things are not forgotten by parents in the construction of churches, 
nor have the public neglected to provide for a constant supply of pure 
air in the work-shops and sleeping-rooms of the State Prison at Wethers- 
field, or the County Gaol at Hartford." 

The following extracts are from the communications referred to in 
the above Report: 

"In one hundred and four districts in one county, there are thirty- 
one school-houses which may be considered as being in very good repair, 
and seventy-three of which are more or less out of repair. Among them 
there are but seven which are constructed in such a manner as to be 
comfortable and convenient. In three the scholars all face the teacher, 
and in six or seven others, they sit so as to face the centre of the room. 
In the others the desks are confined to the walls on three sides of the 
room, and have seats in front of them. By this arrangement the larger 
scholars sit with their backs to the teacher, except while engaged in 
reading and spelling. In the first position they have no support at all 
for the back, and in the latter, the edge of the desk is all that is afforded. 
The younger scholars are seated in the centre of the room on low seats 
which in eighty districts are provided with backs. In the remaining 
twenty-four districts, these seats have not backs. In eight districts, two 
rooms are occupied by the school, and in ninety-six districts, only one 
room. The rooms used, will average about twenty feet square, and eight 
feet in height. In seventy-five districts, close stoves are used for warm- 
ing the houses, and in twenty-three, stoves and fire-places, and in six, 
fire-places alone. In none of these houses has any provision been made 
for ventilation. 

In no case is a scraper, or a mat for the feet provided. In one hundred 
districts they have no play-ground except the highway, or the land of in- 
dividuals. In about forty districts a few shade trees maybe found within 
twenty or thirty rods of the school-house. Eighty-nine houses stand in 
the highway, in all or in part. One district has provided globes for the 
use of the school, and made arrangements for procuring philosophical 
and chemical apparatus. Twenty-nine districts have blackboards 5 and 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 27 

three have some maps, and one, a clock. All are destitute of a library, 
thermometer, and recitation rooms. In country districts, the entry serves 
as a wood-room, and place for hats and cloaks. In country towns, from 
thirty to fifty scholars are usually crowded into a room calculated for only 
twenty or twenty-five. 

In another county, out of sixty-two school houses, nineteen are located 
in the highway, and the ground on which the others stand cannot be 
worth on an average twelve dollars for each. Thirteen are bounded by 
two roads. Sixteen are in noisy and improper neighborhoods. None 
have any shade trees, or any of those adornments which are resorted to 
to make our homes pleasant and healthy. Twenty-six are in good repair ; 
nineteen are much out of repair; one hundred and seventy-six squares ol 
glass are broken ; and very few are sufficiently protected from cold air 
from beneath ; twenty-five have crevices to admit the wind from every 
quarter. Thirty-eight have never been white-washed ; none have blinds 
and other arrangements to admit the proper degree of light; little or no 
provisions are made for securing habits of neatness and ord«r, by proper 
places for hats, cloaks, &c. &c; in forty-eight instances the desks are at- 
tached to the walls, so that scholars sit with their backs to the teacher while 
engaged in their studies ; and when they face him they are obliged to lean, it 
they rest at all, against the edge of the desk for support ; in fifty-two, the 
seats are without backs, and that in most, the seats are not of proper 
elevation for children of different sizes, nor are they so adapted to the 
desks that the scholars could write without violating the laws of their 
organization, and inducing deformity and ill-health; thirty-eight out of 
the sixty-four are altogether unprovided with the means of ventilation, 
except through the crevices about the floors and sides of the room. 

In another county, out of fifty school-houses taken at hazard from the 
returns for the county, forty are all or in part in the public highway; 
twelve are in situations which are wet and disagreeable ; not one of these 
have any play-ground ' except the gardens and orchards ' of neighbors ; 
but two are ventilated by an opening in the ceiling ; in thirty, the scholars 
face the walls, or the windows which are in all cases without blinds or 
shades ; in five only are the seats and desks properly arranged and of 
proper heights, so as to favor the health, the comfort, or the progress of 
the pupils ; and in all, the dimensions of the room are altogether too con- 
tracted for even the average attendance of the district. 

In another county, out of forty school-houses, but one has any provision 
for ventilation ; but seven have seats with backs in any case ; the average 
height of the school-rooms is seven feet ; the average breadth seventeen and 
a half feet ; the average length, eighteen and a half feet, while the average 
attendance is over thirty children to each. 

I have been greatly discouraged by the entire destitution of maps, 
globes, and other school apparatus ; by witnessing among the small 
scholars great suffering, and the probable commencement of disease and 
deformity, for want of proper support for the back and feet ; and an 
almost entire neglect of those out-door conveniences which a civilized 
people are said never to forget or allude to. But the ill location of the 
school-houses, bad seats and desks, the entire want of school-libraries, 
globes, and (often) of suitable books, might be the better borne with, 
were not the children shut out from any tolerable enjoyment of the vital 
air of heaven. Fifty, sixty, or seventy little ones are often crowded 
together into a close room quite insufficient to give pure air to one quarter 
of the number." 

" As I passed from one school society to another, I had an opportunity 
to see many of the school-houses ; for they stand generally on the high- 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

way, and some near the travelled path. They are in keeping with 
the school-houses in other parts of the State. ' They are not beautiful 
outward,' and in some which I entered I found very little in the internal 
structure and arrangement to approve. The desks, as usual, are where 
they never ought to be, against the sides of the school-room and against 
one end. of the same height for all the children, who want desks, what- 
ever be their size and age. The seats are so high that some of the 
children cannot get their feet to the floor ; and in others the height of the 
desks and seats are disproportionate. While at these desks, (which are 
often too narrow.) the children are tempted to be looking out at the win- 
dows at every passing object, and are liable at times to be incommoded 
by the too intense rays of the sun, by the air, or cold ; their backs are 
toward their teacher, and not their faces. In getting over their bench to 
the desks, and then in turning round from them, they annoy one another 
and distract the school, while the edge of the desk, often hacked, acts al- 
ternately upon the breast and back like a kind of saw-fish. In some 
instances still, the barbarous custom remains, of seating the little children 
on benches without backs, raised so high that their feet hang dangling." 

The following extracts are taken from official documents, published in 
1846 and 1847, and fair specimens of the manner in which school-houses 
are spoken of, in the reports of local committees, from different parts of 
the State. 

" In one district the school-house stands on the highway, with eighty 
pupils enrolled as in attendance, in a room nineteen and a half feet 
square, without any outbuildings of any kind. 

In another in the same town, the school-house is less than seven feet 
high, and the narrow slab seats are twenty-one inches high, (four inches 
higher than ordinary chairs.) The walls, desks, &c, are cut and marked 
with all sorts of images, some of which would make heathens blush. 

In another, the room is fourteen feet square, and six feet five inches 
high. The walls are very black." 

" In this town there is one of the most venerable school servants in the 
State. The room is small, and less than seven feet high. Slab seats 
extend around three sides of the room, and are too high for men. The 
skill of several generations must have been expended in illustrating the 
walls with lamp smoke and coal images. The crevices of the floor will 
admit any quantity of cold air. The door sill and part of the house 
sill have rotted away. The day I visited it, the teacher and pupils were 
huddled around the stove." 

" In one district, the house stands near the travelled road, is low and 
small, being only seventeen feet by seventeen, and seven feet two 
inches high, for the accommodation of sixty or seventy pupils. The 
seats on the outside are from seventeen to eighteen inches. The 
walls, door, and sides of the house are disfigured with obscene images." 

" There are only three good school-houses in the society ; only three 
that have any out-houses. The rest of the school-houses are in a miser- 
able condition. One is thirty-five or forty years old. Most of them 
have only slab seats, with the legs sticking through, upwards, like 
hatchel-teeth, and high enough to keep the legs of the occupants swing- 
ing. They are as uncomfortable to little children as a pillory. Seats 
and desks are adorned with every embellishment tha* the ingenuity o. 
professional whittlers can devise." 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 29 

" Two of our school-houses, those in the two largest districts, are in a 
bad condition, old, unpainted and inconvenient. They are built and con- 
structed inside on the old Connecticut plan. Only one row of desks, and 
that fastened to the wall of the school-room, running quite around it ; 
and long forms, without backs to rest on, the scholars silting with their 
backs to the centre of the room. The other two are in better condition, 
though one is constructed on the same plan as above. The out-buildings 
are in bad condition generally. One school-house has no out-building 
nor wood-house. One school-house only is painted outside." 

" Of the nine school-houses in this society, not one is really what they 
all ought to be, for the morals, health, and intellectual improvement of 
the pupils. Four of them are considered tolerably good, having one out- 
building, the other five are hardly passable. The desks in most or all of 
them are where they never ought to be, against the sides of the room 
and against one end, and with few exceptions, all of a height, with poor 
accommodations for loose clothes, hats, &c; all located on or near some 
highway ; no play-ground attached to any of them, except the highway." 



MAINE. 

Extract from a special " Report of the Secretary of the Board of Ed 

, ttcation, upon the subject of School-Houses.'''' 

\"_ It is worthy of note, and of most serious consideration, that a ma- 
jority of the returns speak of ill-constructed school-houses as one of the 
most prominent 'defects in the practical operation of the' law establishing 
common-schools.'J The strength and uniformity of the language made 
use of, as well as the numerous applications to the members of the board, 
and their secretary, for information upon this subject, leave no room for 
doubt as to the existence of a wide-spread evil; an evil, the deleterious 
influence of which, unless it is reformed, and that speedily, is not to be con- 
fined to the present generation, but must be entailed upon posterity. In 
remarking upon this subject, as long ago as|_1832, it was said by the 
board of censors of the American Institute of Instruction, that ' if we 
were called upon to name the most prominent defect in the schools of our 
country ; that which contributes most, directly and indirectly, to retard 
the progress of public education, and which most loudly calls for a 
prompt and thorough reform, it would be the want of spacious and con- 
venient school-houses.' From every indication, there is reason to believe 
that the remark is applicable, to our school-houses, in their present con- 
dition, as it was when made.\ For the purpose of contributing, in some 
small degree, towards effecting a reform for which so urgent a necessity 
exists, and rendering some assistance, in the way of counsel, to those who 
are about erecting new school-houses, or remodelling old ones, this report 
is prepared, under the direction of the board. It makes no claim to origi- 
nality of thought or language ; it is, in fact, a mere compilation of the 
thoughts and language of others who have given the subject a carefin 
investigation, whose opinions are the result of close observation and long 
experience, and are therefore entitled to our confidence and respect. To 
save the necessity of giving credit, upon almost every page of this report 
for borrowed language, as well as ideas, it may here be remarked, that 
the principal sources from which the information herewith communicated 
has been compiled, are, the reports upon the subject of school-houses, by 
Hon. Horace Mann and Henry Barnard, Esq., and 'The School-master,' 
by Mr. George B. Emerson ; gentlemen to whom, for their efforts in the 



30 



INTRODUCTION. 



cause, a large debt of gratitude is due from the friends of education ; a 
debt which can be discharged in no manner more acceptable to them, 
than by entering into their labors, and adopting and reducing to practice 
their very valuable suggestions." 



MODE ISLAND. 

Extracts from " Report on the condition and improvement of the Pub- 
lic Schools of Rhode Island, submitted Nov. 1, 1845, by Henry Barnard. 
Commissioner of Public Schools." 

" The condition of the school-houses, was, in my circuit through the 
schools, brought early and constantly under my notice, and to effect an 
immediate and thorough reform, public attention was early and earnestly 
called to the subject. The many and great evils to the health, manners, 
morals, and intellectual habits of children, which grow out of their bad 
and defective construction and appurtenances, were discussed and ex- 
posed, and the advantages of more complete and convenient structures 
pointed out. In compliance with the request of the Committee on Edu- 
cation, a law authorizing school districts to lay and collect a tax to repair 
the old, and build new school-houses, was drafted and passed ; and in 
pursuance of a resolution of the General Assembly, a document was pre- 
pared embodying the results of my observations and reflections on the 
general principles of school-architecture, and such plans and descriptions 
of various structures recently erected, for large and small, city and coun- 
try districts, and for schools of different grades, as would enable any com- 
mittee to act understandingly. in framing a plan suitable to the wants of 
any particular district or school. The same document was afterwards 
abridged and distributed widely, as one of the 'Educational Tracts,' 
over the state. I have secured the building of at least one school-house 
in each county, which can be pointed to as a model in all the essential 
features of location, construction, warming, ventilation, seats and desks, 
and other internal and external arrangements. 

During the past two years, more than fifty school-houses have been 
erected, or so thoroughly repaired, as to be substantially new — and most 
of them after plans and directions given in the above document, or fur- 
nished directly by myself, on application from districts or committees." 

"Of these, (three hundred and twelve school-houses visited.) twenty- 
nine were owned by towns in their corporate capacity; one hundred and 
forty-seven by proprietors ; and one hundred ancl forty-five by school dis- 
tricts. Of two hundred and eighty school-houses from which full re- 
turns were received, including those in Providence, twenty-five were in 
very good repair; sixty-two were in ordinary repair; and eighty-six 
were pronounced totally unfit for school purposes ; sixty-five were located 
in the public highway, and one hundred and eighty directly on the line 
of the road, without any yard, or out-buildings attached ; and but twenty- 
one had a play-ground inclosed. In over two hundred school-rooms, the 
average height was less than eight feet, without any opening in the ceil- 
ing, or other effectual means for ventilation ; the seats and desks were 
calculated for more than two pupils, arranged on two or three sides of 
the room, and in most instances, where the results of actual measurement 
was given, the highest seats were over eighteen inches from the floor, 
and the lowest, except in twenty-five schools, were over fourteen inches 
for the youngest pupils, and these seats were unprovided with backs. 
Two hundred and seventy schools were unfurnished with a clock, black- 
board, or thermometer, and only five were provided with a scraper and 
mat for the feet." 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. %\ 

"Such was the condition of most of the places where the public schools 
were kept in the winter of 1843-44. in the counties of Kent, Washington 
and Newport, and in not a few districts in the counties of Providence and 
Bristol. In some districts, an apartment in an old shop or dwelling-house 
was fitted up as a school-room; and in eleven towns,. the school-houses, 
such as they were, were owned by proprietors, to whom in many in- 
stances, the districts paid in rent a larger amount than would have been 
the interest on the cost of a new and commodious school house. Since 
the passage of the Act of January, 1844, empowering school districts to 
purchase, repair, build and furnish school-houses, and since public atten- 
tion was called to the evils and inconvenience of the old structures, and to 
better plans of construction and internal arrangement, by public addresses, 
and the circulation of documents, the work of renovation in this depart- 
ment of school improvement has gone on rapidly. If the same progress 
can be made for three years more, Rhode Island can show, in proportion 
to the number of school districts; more specimens of good houses, and 
fewer dilapidated, inconvenient and unhealthy structures of this kind, than 
any other state. To bring about thus early this great and desirable 
result, I can suggest nothing beyond the vigorous prosecution of the 
same measures which have proved so successful during the past two 
years. 

1. The public mind in the backward districts must be aroused to an 
active sense of the close connection of a good school-house with a good 
school, by addresses, discussions, conversation and printed documents on 
the subject, and by the actual results of such houses in neighboring dis- 
tricts and towns. 

2. Men of wealth and intelligence in their several neighborhoods, and 
capitalists, in villages where the} r have a pecuniary interest, can continue 
to exert their influence in this department of improvement. 

3. School committees of every town can refuse to draw orders in favor 
of any district which will not provide a healthy and convenient school- 
room for the children of the district ; and to approve plans for the repairs 
of an old, or the construction of a new house, vvhich are to be paid for by 
a tax on the property of the district, unless such plans embrace the essen- 
tial features of a good school-house. 

4. The Commissioner of Public Schools must continue to furnish gra- 
tuitously, plans and directions for the construction and arrangement of 
school-houses, and to call the attention of builders and committees to such 
structures as can be safely designated as models. 

Districts should make regulations to preserve the school-house and 
appendages from injury or defacement, and authorizing the trustees to 
make all necessary repairs, without the formality of a special vote on the 
subject." 

MICHIGAN. 

Extracts from "Annual Report of the Superintendent (Hon. Ira May 
heiv,) of Public Instruction of the State of Michigan, submitted Decem- 
ber 10, 1817." 

" The place where our country's youth receive their first instruction, and 
where nineteen twentieths of them complete their scholastic training 
claims early attention. We may then profitably dwell upon the condi- 
tion of our common school-houses. 

In some instances school-houses are favorably located, being situated 
on dry, hard ground, in a retired though central part of the district, in the 
midst of a natural or artificial grove. But they are usually located with- 
out reference to taste, or the health and comfort of teacher or children. 
They are generally on one corner of public roads, and sometimes adja- 



32 INTRODUCTION. 

cent to a cooper's shop, or between a blacksmith's shop and a saw-mill. 
They are not ^infrequently placed upon an acute angle, where a road 
forks, and sometimes in turning that angle the travel is chiefly behind 
the school-house, Reaving it on a small triangle, bounded on all sides by 
public roads. 

At other times the school-house is situated on- a low and worthless 
piece of ground, with a sluggish stream of water in its vicinity, which 
sometimes even passes under the school-house. The comfort and health 
even of children are thus sacrificed to the parsimony of their parents. 

Scholars very generally step from the school-house directly into the 
highway. Indeed, school-houses are frequently one half in the highway, 
and the other half in the adjacent field, as though they were unfit for 
either. This is the case even in some of our principal villages. 

School-houses are sometimes situated in the middle of the highway, a 
portion of the travel being on each side of them. When scholars are en- 
gaged in their recreations, they are exposed to bleak winds and the in- 
clemency of the weather one portion of the year, and the scorching rays 
of the meridian sun another portion. Moreover, their recreations must 
be conducted in the street, or they trespass upon their neighbors' premi- 
ses. Such situations can hardly be expected to exert the most favorable 
influence upon the habits and character of the rising generation. * * 

Although there is a great variety in the dimensions of school-houses, 
yet there are few less than sixteen by eighteen feet on the ground, and 
fewer still larger than twenty-four by thirty feet. Exclusive of entry and 
closets, when they are furnished with these appendages, school-houses 
are not usually larger than twenty by twenty-four feet on the ground, 
and seven feet in height. They are, indeed, more frequently smaller 
than larger. School-houses of these dimensions have a capacity of three 
thousand three hundred and sixty cubic feet, and are usually occupied by 
at least forty-five scholars in the winter season. Not unfrequently sixty 
or seventy, and occasionally more than a hundred scholars occupy a room 
of this size. 

A simple arithmetical computation will abundantly satisfy any person 
who is acquainted with the composition of the atmosphere, the influence 
of respiration upon its fitness to sustain animal life, and the quantity of 
air that enters the lungs at each inspiration, that a school-room of the 
preceding dimensions does not. contain a sufficient quantity of air to sus- 
tain the healthy respiration of even forty-Jive scholars, three hours, the 
usual length of each session ; and frequently the school-house is imper- 
fectly ventilated between the sessions at noon, or indeed, for several days 
in succession. 

The ordinary facilities for ventilating school-rooms, are opening a door, 
or raising the lower sash of the windows. The prevailing practice with 
refrence to their ventilation, is opening and closing the door, as the schol- 
ars enter and pass out of the school-house, before school, during the re- 
cesses, and at noon. Ventilation, as such, I may safely say, has not 
hitherto been practiced in one school in fifty. It is true, the door has been 
occasionally set open a few minutes, and the windows have been raised, 
but the object has been, either to let the smoke pass out of the room, or 
to cool it when it has become too warm, not to ventilate it. Ventila- 
tion, by opening a door or raising the windows, is imperfect, and fre- 
quently injurious. A more effectual and safer method of ventilation, is 
to lower the upper sash of the windows, or, in very cold or stormy 
weather, to open a ventilator in the ceiling, and allow the vitiated air to 
escape into the attic. In this case, there should be a free communication 
between the attic and the outer air, by means of a lattice window, or 
otherwise. A ventilator may be constructed in connection with the 
chimney, by carrying up a partition in the middle. One half the chim- 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 



33 



ney, in this case, may be used for a smoke flue, and the other half for a 
ventilator. 

There are few school-houses the internal construction of which is in all 
respects alike ; yet, by far the majority of them will rank in one of the 
three following classes : 

1. The first class embraces those which are constructed with one or 
two tiers of desks along each side of the house, and across one end of it ; 
the outer seat having the wall of the house for its back, and the front of 
each tier of desks constituting the back to the next inner seat. There is 
usually an alley on each side of the house and at the end of it, leaving 
the seats of sufficient length to accommodate from five to eight scholars. 
Those sitting next the alleys can pass to and from their seats without 
discommoding others. All the rest, (usually not less than three-fourths 
the entire number,) disturb from one to five or six scholars every time 
they pass to or from their seats; unless, (which is about as commonly 
practiced, especially with the scholars most distant from the alleys.) they 
climb over the desks in front of them. 

Occasionally the desks are shorter, accommodating three or four schol- 
ars; and, sometimes, they are intended to accommodate two scholars only, 
so that each of them, (excepting the outer ones at the end desks,) sits ad- 
jacent to an alley, and can pass to and from his seat without disturbing 
others. There is usually a desk, or table, for the teacher's use, (or at 
least & place for one.) at the end of the house not occupied by the cross 
seats. 

2. The second class embraces those in which the desks extend across 
the house, with an alley through the middle of it lengthwise, and occa- 
sionally one around the outside of the room. All the desks of the second 
class front the teacher's desk or table. 

3. The third class embraces those which are constructed with a row of 
desks along each side of the house, and across one end of it, the desks 
fronting the walls of the house, so that the backs of the scholars, while 
sitting at them, are turned towards the teacher. In this class of houses 
there are usually three long seats without backs, just within the desks. 
Sometimes the seats are joined at the corners so as to continue unbroken, 
twice the length of the house and once its width, a distance of forty-five 
or fifty feet. There is usually a second tier of seats, and sometimes desks 
within them, fronting the central part of the room. 

There is one impropriety in the construction of a majority of school- 
houses. The desks are generally constructed with close fronts extend- 
ing to the floor, whereby a free circulation of air, and consequent equili- 
brium of temperature, are interrupted, which would take place were the 
seats and desks so arranged as to allow suitable channels of communica- 
tion. The scholars behind the desks are necessarily troubled with cold 
feet, unless the room is kept too warm. Were this evil removed, the 
first class, with short desks, would constitute a very comfortable and con- 
venient arrangement, except from the circumstance that the children are 
placed opposite each other, which is a serious evil, especially where both 
sexes are in the same room, as is the case in nearly all of our common 
schools. 

Another objection to long desks, is the inconvenience to which the 
scholars are subjected in passing to and from their seats. This objection 
exists to a considerable extent in the second class of houses, especially 
where there is not an alley around the outside of the room. Were it not 
for this inconvenience, — which might be obviated by introducing a greater 
number of alleys and shortening the desks, so as to accommodate but two 
scholars, each of whom would sit adjacent to an alley, and could pass to 
and from his seat without disturbing others — the second would, in my 
judgment, constitute the preferable plan. All the scholars should faca 

3 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

the teacher, but none of them should face each other. This is particu- 
larly important where both sexes attend the same school. 

And what shall I say of the third class ? — I can readily enumerate 
some of its inconveniences, but its real advantages are, in my opinion, 
few. The following are some of the inconveniences : 1. There is little 
or no uniformity, usually, in the position of the scholars. Some of them 
face the walls, others the inner part of the room, and others still sit astride 
the seat. 2. When the teacher desires the attention of the school, a por- 
tion of the scholars must either turn about, or sit with their backs towards 
him, while he addresses them. 3. In changing their positions in foul 
weather, the scholars are apt to muddy the seats, and the clothes of those 
who sit adjacent to them. 4. The change of position is frequently em- 
barrassing to the girls. ' 5. Front lights are less pleasant, and more inju- 
rious to the eyes, than side lights or back ones are. 6. Sitting on a plane 
seat, without a back, is uncomfortable, and often engenders disease of the 
spine, especially in childhood and youth. 

The principal supposed advantage of this construction is, I believe, that 
it affords the teacher a better opportunity for detecting the scholars when 
engaged in mischief. I do not see how any material advantage of this 
kind can exist, till the bodies of children become transparent. 

But were the supposed advantage real, it seems to me to be tempting 
children to do wrong, to give the teacher an opportunity of displaying his 
skill in detecting them. When children cannot see their teacher, they 
frequently think he cannot see them, and conduct accordingly. 

There are several inconveniences not yet specified, existing to a less 
or greater extent, in each of the three classes of houses I have described. 

1. The height of the seats, although sometimes adjusted with great 
care, is frequently determined without any apparent regard to the size 
and comfort of the scholars who are to occupy them. I have visited 
many schools in which the majority of the scholars reverse the ordinary 
practice of standing up and sitting down. They literally sit up and stand 
down, their heads being higher while sitting than when standing. 

2. The desks, with their close fronts, are frequently several inches too 
high. I have visited many schools in which all that could be seen of a 
majority of the scholars occupying the back seats, was a part of their 
heads, and that, too, when they sat erect upon their seats. The desks, 
moreover, are frequently inclined twenty-five or thirty degrees, so that a 
book laid upon them immediately slides off. An inclination of one inch 
to the foot will be found more convenient than greater obliquity. A 
space of three inches on the most distant portion of the desk, should be 
left horizontal, for inkstands, pencils, pens, etc. 

3. The floor is sometimes considerably inclined, for the purpose, I sup- 
pose, of giving the teacher a better opportunity of seeing the more dis- 
tant scholars. The whole school is not only subjected to the inconven- 
ience of walking up and down an inclined plane, but what is much worse, 
when scholars sit upon their seats, and rest their feet upon the floor, 
when within reach, they are constantly sliding from under them. 

School-houses are not generally furnished with suitable conveniences 
for disposing of the loose wearing apparel of the scholars, their dinners, 
etc. There are sometimes a few nails or shelves, in a common entry, 
through which all the scholars pass, upon which a portion of their clothes 
may be hung or laid, and where dinners may be deposited. But in such 
cases, the outside door is usually left open, the rain and snow beat in, and 
the scholars, in haste to get their own clothes, frequently pull down as 
many more, which are trampled under foot. Moreover, the dinners are 
frozen, and not unfrequently they are devoured by dogs, and even by the 
hogs that run in the street. But the majority of school-houses are not 
furnished with an entry ; and where there is one, frequently not even a 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 35 

nail can be found in it, upon which a single article of clothing may be 
hung. Neither are there nails or shelves for this purpose within the 
school-room. Scholars generally are obliged to throw their clothes 
across the desks, upon the seats, or into the windows. 

School-houses are generally warmed by means of stoves, some of 
which are in a good condition, and supplied with dry wood from the wood- 
house. The instances, however, in which such facilities for warming 
exist, are comparatively few. It is much more common to see cracked 
and broken stoves, the doors without either hinges or latch, and rusty pipe 
of various sizes. Green wood, and that which is old and partly decayed, 
either drenched with rain or covered with snow, is much more frequently 
used for fuel, than sound, seasoned wood, protected from the weather by 
a suitable wood-house. With this state of tilings, it is difficult to kindle 
a fire, which burns poorly, at best, when kindled. The room is filled 
with smoke a considerable part of the time, especially in stormy weather. 
The school is frequently interrupted two or three times a day, to fasten 
together and tie up the stove pipe. This may seem a little like exagger- 
ation. I know there are many exceptions. But in a majority of in- 
stances some of these inconveniences exist, and the most of them are 
united in more cases than people are aware of. I have heard trustees 
and patrons who have visited their school with me, for the first time in 
several years, say, " We ought to have some dry wood to kindle with ;" 
" I did'nt know as it was so smoky ;" " We must get some new pipe ; 
really our stove is getting dangerous," etc. And some of the boys have 
relieved the embarrassment of their parents by saying, " It don't smoke 
near as bad to-day as it does sometimes." 

The principal reason why the stoves in our school-houses are so cracked 
and broken, and why the pipes are so rusty and open, lies in the circum- 
stance that green wood from the snow bank, is used for fuel, instead of 
dry wood from the wood-house. There are at least three reasons why 
this is poor policy. 

1. It takes at least double the amount of wood. A considerable portion 
of the otherwise sensible heat becomes latent in the conversion of ice, 
snow and moisture into steam. 

2. The steam thus generated cracks the stove and rusts the pipe, so 
that they will not last one half as long as though dry wood from the wood- 
house were used. And, 

3. It is impossible to preserve an even temperature. Sometimes it is 
too cold, and at other times it is too warm. Several teachers have in- 
formed me that in order to keep their fires from going out, it was neces- 
sary to have their stoves constantly full of wood, that a portion of it 
might be seasoning while the rest was burning. Moreover, very offen- 
sive and injurious gases are generated in this manner. 

There are, perhaps, in the majority of school-houses, a pail for water, 
cup, and broom, and a chair for the teacher. Some one or more of these 
are frequently wanting. I need hardly say every school-house shoiild be 
supplied with them all. In addition to these, every school-house should 
be furnished with the following articles : — 1. An evaporating dish for the 
stove, which should be supplied with clean pure water. 2. A thermom- 
eter, by which the temperature of the room may be regulated. 3. A 
clock, by which the time of beginning and closing school, and conducting 
all its exercises, may be governed. 4. A shovel and tongs. 5. An ash- 
pail and ash-house. For want of these, much filth is frequently suffered 
to accumulate in and about the school-house, and not unfrequently the 
house itself takes fire and burns down. 6. A wood-house, well supplied 
with seasoned wood. 7. A well, with provisions not only for drinking, 
but for the cleanliness of pupils. 8. At last, though not least, in this con- 
nection, two privies, in the rear of the school-house, separated by a high 



36 INTRODUCTION. 

close fence, one for the boys and the other for the girls. For want o. 
these indispensable appendages of civilization, the delicacy of children 
is frequently offended, and their morals corrupted. Nay, more, the un- 
natural detention of the faces, when nature calls for an evacuation, is fre- 
quently the foundation for chronic diseases, and the' principal cause of 
permanent ill health, resulting not unfrequently in premature death. 

In architectural appearance, school-houses have more resembled barns, 
sheds for cattle, or mechanic shops, than Temples of Science, — windows 
are broken — benches are mutilated — desks are cut up — wood is unpro- 
vided — out buildings are neglected — obscene images and vulgar deline- 
ations meet the eye without and within — the plastering is smoked and 
patched — the roof is so open as to let in a flood of water in a storm, suffi- 
cient to drown out a school, were not the floor equally open." 

We close this mass of testimony as to the deplorable condition of 
the common, or public school-houses in States where public instruc- 
tion has received the most attention, with an extract from a' " Report 
Jon School-houses published by order of the Directors of the Essex 
County Teachers' Association in 1833." 

" There is one subject more to which we must be permitted to refer. 
One in which the morals of the young are intimately connected, one in 
which parents, instructors, and scholars, should unite their efforts to pro- 
duce a reform ; there should be nothing in or about school-houses, calcu- 
lated to defile the mind, corrupt the heart, or excite unholy and forbidden 
appetites ; yet considering the various character of those brought together 
incur public schools, and considering also how inventive are corrupt, 
minds, in exhibiting openly the defilement which reigns within, Ave do not 
know but we must expect that school-houses, as well as other public 
buildings, and even fences, will continue to bear occasional marks both of 
lust and profaneness. But we must confess that the general apathy 
which apparently exists on this subject, does appear strange to us. It is 
a humbling fact, that in many of these houses, there are highly indecent, 
profane, and libidinous marks, images and expressions, some of which are 
spread out in broad characters on the walls, where they unavoidably 
meet the eyes of all who come into the house, or being on the outside, 
salute the traveler as he passes by, wounding the delicate, and annoying 
the moral sensibilities of the heart. "While there is still a much greater 
number in smaller character, upon the tables and seats of the students, 
and even in some instances, of the instructors, constantly before the eyes 
of those who happen to occupy them. How contaminating these must 
be, no one can be entirely insensible. And yet how unalarmed, or if not 
entirely unalarmed, how little is the mind of community directed to the 
subject, and how little effort put forth to stay this fountain of corruption. 
We will mention as evidence of the public apathy, one house which we 
suppose is this day, it certainly was a kw months since, defiled by images 
and expressions of the kind referred to, spread out in open observation 
upon its walls, which are known to have been there for eight or ten 
years. In this building during all this time, the summer and winter 
schools have been kept ; here the district have held their business meet- 
ings; here frequently has been the singing-school; here, too, religious 
meetings have often been held ; here, too, the school committee, the fathers, 
mothers, and friends of the children, have come to witness the progress 
of their children in knowledge and virtue ; all of whom must have wit- 
nessed, and been ashamed of their defilement, and yet no effectual effort 
has been put forth to remove them. Such things ought not to be ; thev 



SCHOOL-HOUSES AS THEY ARE. 



37 



can. to a considerable extent, be prevented. The community are not 
therefore altogether clear in this matter. r 

We will close these remarks by observing thatlafter an extensive and 
careful examination of the state of a great number of school-houses in this •/ 
and other States, we are constrained to believe, that in regard to accom- 
modation, the convicts in the State Prisons, ^except those condemned to 
solitary and perpetual confinement, and we are not certain that in all 
cases these should be excepted,[are better provided for, than the dear 
children of New England, the glory of the present, and the hope of the 
coming agfe. And when we regard the deleterious effect whicffihe want 
of accommodation and other imperfectionsjiri and about these buildings, 
must have upon the growth, health, and perfectness of the bodily system, 
upon the mental and moral power, upon the tender and delicate feeling 
of the heart, we must suppose Ehere is as pressing a call for the direct 
interference of the wise and benevolent, to produce an improvement, as 
there is for the efforts of the Prison Discipline Society^or for many of the 
benevolent exertions of the day. And we do most solemnly and affec- 
tionately call upon all, according to their situation in life, to direct their 
attention to the subject ; for the bodies, the minds, the hearts of the young 
and rising generation require this. It is a service due to the present and 
future generation. A service due to their bodies and souls." 



SCHOOL ABCHITECTURE 



In treating of School Architecture, it will be convenient to pre- 
sent — 

I. Common Errors to be avoided. 
II. General Principles to be observed. 

Ill Plans and directions for erecting and fitting up school-houses 
adapted to the varying circumstances of country and city, of a 
small, and a large number of scholars, of schools of different 
grades and of different systems of instruction. 

I. COMMON ERRORS IN SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Under this head it will be sufficient to enumerate the principal 
features of school-houses as they are. 

They are, almost universally, badly located, exposed to the noise, 
dust and danger of the highway, unattractive, if not positively repul- 
sive in their external and internal appearance, and built at the least 
possible expense of material and labor. 

They are too small. There is no separate entry for boys and girls 
appropriately fitted up ; no sufficient space for the convenient seating 
and necessary movements of the scholars ; no platform, desk, or re- 
citation room for the teacher. 

They are badly lighted. The windows are inserted on three or 
four sides of the room, without blinds or curtains to prevent the in- 
convenience and danger from cross-lights, and the excess of light 
falling directly on the eyes or reflected from the book, and the dis- 
tracting influence of passing objects and events out of doors. 

They are not properly ventilated. The purity of the atmosphere 
is not preserved by providing for the escape of such portions of the 
air as have become offensive and poisonous by the process of breath- 
ing, and by the matter which is constantly escaping from the lungs 
in vapor, and from the surface of the body in insensible perspiration. 

They are imperfectly warmed. The rush of cold air through 
cracks and defects in the doors, windows, floor and plastering is not 
guarded against. The air which is heated is already impure from 
having been breathed, and made more so by noxious gases arising 
from the burning of floating particles of vegetable and animal matter 
coming in contact with the hot iron. The heat is not equally dif- 



40 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

fused, so that one portion of a school-room is frequently overheated, 
while another portion, especially the floor, is too cold. 

They are not furnished with seats and desks, properly made and 
adjusted to each other, and arranged in such a manner as to promote 
tfii comfort and convenience of the scholars, and the easy supervision 
on the part of the teacher. The seats are too high and too long, with 
no suitable support for the back, and especially for the younger chil- 
dren. The desks are too high for the seats, and are either attached 
to the wall on three sides of the room, so that the faces of the schol- 
ars are turned from the teacher, and a portion of them at least are 
tempted constantly to look out at the windows, — or the seats are at- 
tached to the wall on opposite sides, and the scholars sit facing each 
other. The aisles are not so arranged that each scholar can go to 
and from his seat, change his position, have access to his books, at- 
tend to his own business, be seen and approached by the teacher, 
without incommoding any other. 

They are not provided with blackboards, maps, clock, thermometer, 
and other apparatus and fixtures which are indispensable to a well 
regulated and instructed school. 

They are deficient in all of those in and out-door arrangements 
which help to promote habits of order, and neatness, and cultivate 
delicacy of manners and refinement of feeling. There are no ver- 
dure, trees, shrubbery and flowers for the eye, no scrapers and mats 
for the feet, no hooks and shelves for cloaks and hats, no well, no 
sink, basin and towels to secure cleanliness, and no places of retire- 
ment for children of either sex, when performing the most private 
offices of nature. 



II. GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

] . Location — Style — Construction. 

The location should be dry, quiet, pleasant, and in every respect 
healthy. To secure these points and avoid the evils which must in- 
evitably result from a low and damp, or a bleak and unsheltered site, 
noisy and dirty thoroughfares, or the vicinity of places of idle and 
dissipated resort, it will sometimes be necessary to select alocation 
a little removed from the territorial center of the district, llf possi- 
ble, it should overlook a delightful country, present a choice of sun- 
hine and shade, of trees and flowers^and be sheltered from the pre- 
vailing winds of winter by a hill-top, or a barrier of evergreens. (VAs 
many of the pleasant influences of nature as possible should be gath- 
ered in and around that spot, where the earliest, most, lasting, and 
most controlling associations of a child's mind are forme di 

In the city or populous village, a rear lot, with access from two or 
more streets, should be preferred, not only on the ground of economy, 
but because the convenience and safety of the children in going to 
and from school, the quiet of the school-room, and the advantage of a 
more spacious and retired play-ground will be secured. 

In the country, it will sometimes be desirable for two or more dis- 
tricts to unite and erect a school-house at some point, to which ali 



LOCATION— SIZE— LIGHT. 4 J 

the older children can go from all parts of the associated districts, 
while the younger attend school in their several districts. In this 
way the school-houses can be more appropriately fitted up, and the 
advantage of a more perfect classification in respect both to instruc- 
tion and government, as well as a wiser economy in the employ- 
ment of teachers, be gained. 

(JThe style of the exterior should exhibit good, architectural propor- 
tion, and be calculated to inspire children and the community gene- 
rally with respect for the object to which it is devoted 1 ',; It should 
bear a favorable comparison, in respect to attractiveness, convenience 
and durability, with other public edifices, instead of standing in re- 
pulsive and disgraceful contrast with them. [Every school-house 
should be a temple, consecrated in prayer to the physical, intellectu- 
al, and moral culture of every child in the community and be asso- 
ciated in every heart with the earliest and strongest impressions of 
truth, justice, patriotism, and religion. 

The school-house should be constructed throughout in a workman- 
like manner. No public edifice more deserves, or will better repay, 
the skill, labor, and expense, which may be necessary to attain this 
object, for here the health, tastes, manners, minds, and morals of each 
successive generation of children will be, in a great measure, deter- 
mined for time and eternity. 

2. Size. 

In determining the size of a school-house, due regard must be had 
to the following particulars. — 

First. — A separate entry, or lobby, for each sex, furnished with 
scraper, mat, hooks or shelves, sink, basin and towels. A separate 
entry thus furnished, will prevent much confusion, rudeness, and im- 
propriety, and promote the health, refinement, and orderly habits of 
children. 

Second. — A room, or rooms, large enough to allow, 1st, each occu- 
pant a suitable quantity of pure air, i. e. at least 150 cubic feet ; 2d, to 
go to and from his seaUwithout disturbing any one else ; 3d, to sit 
comfortably in his seat, and engage in his various studies with unre- 
stricted freedom of motion ; and, 4th, to enable the teacher to ap- 
proach each scholar in his seat, pass conveniently to any part, of the 
room, supervise the whole school, and conduct the readings and re- 
citation of the several classes properly arranged. 

Third. — One or more rooms for recitation, apparatus, library, and 
other purposes. 

3. Light. 

The arrangements for light should be such as to admit an abun- 
dance to every part of the room, and prevent the inconvenience and 
danger of any excess, glare, or reflection, or of cross-light. A dome, 
or sky-light, or windows set high, admit and distribute the light moss 
steadily and equally, and with the least interruption from shadows. 
Light from the north is less variable, but imparts less of cheerfulness 
and warmth than from other directions. Windows should be insert- 



42 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

ed only on two sides of the room, at least three and a half or four 
feet from the floor, and should be higher and larger, and fewer in 
number than is now common. There should be no windows directly 
back of the teacher, or on the side towards which the scholars face, 
unless the light is modified by curtains or by ground glass. Every 
window should be suspended with weights, and furnished with blinds 
and curtains ; and if in a much frequented street, the lower sash 
should be glazed with ground glass. 

4. Ventilation. 

Every school-room should be provided with means of ventilation, 
or of renewing the vital portions of the atmosphere which are con- 
stantly absorbed, and of removing impurities which at the same time 
are generated, by the breathing and insensible perspiration of teacher 
and pupils, and by burning fires and lights. 

The importance of some arrangements, to effect a constant supply Oi 
pure air, not only in school-rooms, but in any room where living be- 
ings congregate in numbers for business or pleasure, and where fires 
or lights are kept burning, has been strangely overlooked, to the inevit- 
able sacrifice of health, comfort, and all cheerful and successful labor. 
We practically defeat the beautiful arrangements of our Creator by 
which the purity of the air would otherwise be preserved by its own 
constant renewal, and the harmonious growth and support of the 
animal and vegetable world maintained. We voluntarily stint our- 
selves in the quantity and quality of an article, which is more neces- 
sary to our growth, health and comfort, than food or drink, and which 
our beneficent Father has furnished pure, without money and without 
price, to our very lips, and so abundantly that we are, or should be ii 
we did not prevent it, literally immersed in it all our lives long. 

The atmosphere which surrounds our earth to the height, of forty-five 
miles, and in which we live, and move, and have our being, is com- 
posed mainly of two ingredients, oxygen and nitrogen, with a slight 
admixture of carbonic acid. The first is called the vital principle, the 
breath of life, because by forming and purifying the blood it alone sus- 
tains life, and supports combustion. But to sustain these processes, 
there is a constant consumption of this ingredient going on, and, as will 
be seen by the facts in the case, the formation and accumulation of 
another ingredient, carbonic acid, which is deadly hostile to animal life 
and combustion. This gas is sometimes found in wells, and will there 
extinguish a lighted candle if lowered into it, (and which should al- 
ways be lowered into a well before any person ventures down) and is 
not an uncommon cause of death in such places. It is almost always 
present in deep mines and at the bottom of caverns. Near Naples 
there is one of this description, called the Grotto del Cane, or the 
Grotto of the Dog, because the guides who accompany strangers to 
the interesting spots in the vicinity of Naples, usually take a dog along 
with them to show the effects of this gas upon animal life. Being 
heavier than common air it flows along the bottom of the cavern, and 
although it does not reach as high as the mouth or nostrils of a grown 
man, no sooner does a dog venture into it, than the animal is seized 
with convulsions, gasps and would, die if not dragged out of it into the 



VENTILATION. 



43 



pure air. When recovered, the dog shows no more disposition to return 
to the cavern, though called by his own name, than some children 
do to go to places called school-houses, where experiments almost as 
cruel are daily and hourly tried. But this gas, bad as it is in reference 
to animal life and fires, is the essential agent by which our earth is 
clothed with the beauty of vegetation, foliage, and flowers, and in their 
growth and development, helps to create or rather manufacture the ox- 
ygen, which every breathing creature and burning fire must consume. 
The problem to be solved is how shall we least mar the beautiful ar- 
rangement of Providence, and appropriate to our own use as little as 
possible of that, which though death to us, is the breath and the life 
blood of vegetation. 

The air which we breathe, if pure, when taken into the mouth and 
nostrils, is composed in every one hundred parts, of 21 oxygen, 78 
nitrogen, and 1 of carbonic acid. After traversing the innumerable 
cells into which the lungs are divided and subdivided, and there coming 
into close contact with the blood, these proportions are essentially chan- 
ged, and when breathed out, the same quantity of air containes 8 per 
cent, less of oxygen, and 8 per cent, more of carbonic acid. If in this 
condition (without being renewed,) it is breathed again, it is deprived of 
another quantity of oxygen, and loaded with the same amount of car- 
bonic acid. Each successive act of breathing reduces in this way, 
and in this proportion, the vital principle of the air, and increases in 
the same proportion that which destroys life. But in the mean time 
what has been going on in the lungs with regard to the blood ? This 
fluid, after traversing the whole frame, from the heart to the extrem- 
ities, parting all along with its heat, and ministering its nourishing par- 
ticles to the growth and preservation of the body, returns to the heart 
changed in color, deprived somewhat of its vitality, and loaded with 
impurities. In this condition, for the purpose of renewing its color, 
its vitality and its purity, it makes the circuit of the lungs, where by 
means of innumerable little vessels, inclosing like a delicate net 
work each individual air cell, every one of its finest particles comes 
into close contact with the air which has been breathed. If this air 
has its due proportion of oxygen, the color of the blood changes from 
a dark purple to a bright scarlet ; its vital warmth is restored, and its 
impurities, by the union of the oxygen of the air with the carbon of 
blood, of which these impurities are made up, are thrown off in the 
form of carbonic acid. Thus vitalized and purified, it enters the heart 
to be sent out again through the system on its errand of life and be- 
neficence, to build up and repair the solid frame work of the body, give 
tone and vigor to its muscles and restring all its nerves to vibrate in 
unison with the glorious sights and thrilling sounds of nature, and the 
still sad music of humanity. 

But in case the air with which the blood comes in contact, through 
the thin membranes that constitute the cells of the lungs, does not 
contain its due proportion of oxygen, viz. 20 or 21 per cent, as when 
it has once been breathed, then the blood returns to the heart unen- 
dued with newness of life, and loaded with carbon and other impurities 
which unfit it for the purposes of nourishment, the repair, and main- 



44 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

tenance of the vigorous actions of all the parts, and especially of the 
brain, and spinal column, the great fountains of nervous power. Ii 
this process is long continued, even though the air be but slightly de- 
teriorated, the effects will be evident in the languid and feeble action 
of the muscles, the sunken eye, the squalid hue of the skin, the unnat- 
ural irritability of the nervous system, a disinclination to all mental 
and bodily exertion, and a tendency to stupor, headache and fainting. 
If the air is very impure, i. e; has but little or no oxygen and much 
carbonic acid, then the imperfect and poisoned blood will act with a 
peculiar and malignant energy on the whole system, and especially 
on the brain, and convulsions, apoplexy, and death must ensue. 

Abundant instances of the beneficent effects of pure air, and the 
injurious and fatal results of breathing that which is impure, might be 
cited from the history of hospitals and prisons, and writers generally 
on health and education. In the Dublin Hospital, between the years 
1781 and 1785, out of 7650 children, 2944 died within a fortnight oi 
their birth — that is, more than one in three. Dr. Clark, the physician, 
suspecting the cause to be an imperfeet supply of pure air, caused it to 
be introduced by means of pipes into all of the apartments, and in con- 
sequence, during the three following years, only 165 out of 4242 died 
within the two first weeks of their birth — that is less than one in twen- 
ty. Dr. Buchan, at a little earlier date, by the same arrangement re- 
duced the mortality of children in a hospital in Yorkshire, from fifty 
in one hundred to one in fifty. In these two cases there was an im- 
mense saving of human life. But the good done by these intelligent 
and observing physicians was not confined to these hospitals. For 
in a few years, the results of their observation and labors led to the 
introduction of more perfect arrangements for a supply of pure air in 
all structures of a similar character in England and elsewhere. And 
at this hour there are hospitals in this country and in England, in 
which there is a larger number of cubic feet of air, and that kept pure 
by perfect means of ventilation, allowed to each patient, than is contain- 
ed in many school-rooms occupied by 20, 30, or 40 children, heated 
with a close stove, and provided with no means of ventilation except 
such as time and decay have made. 

The diminished mortality of prisons, and the almost entire disap- 
pearance of that terible scourge, the jail fever, so frequent before the 
days of Howard, is to be attributed mainly to the larger allowance 
and regular supply of pure air secured by improved principles of pris- 
on architecture and discipline. There are instances on record, where 
the inmates of prisons have escaped the visitation of some prevalent 
sickness, solely on the ground of their cells being better provided 
with pure air, than the dwelling-houses all around them. The pris- 
oners in the Tolbooth, in Edinburgh, were unaffected by the plague 
which caused such dreadful mortality in that city, in 1645, and thi9 
exemption was attributed to their better supply of pure air. Humboldt 
in his Personal Narrative, mentions the case of a seaman who was at 
the point of death, and was obliged to be removed from his hammock, 
which brought his face to within a foot of the deck, into the open air 
in order to have the sacrament administered according to the forms of 



VENTILATION. 45 

tlie Catholic Church. In this place he was expected to die, but the 
change from the stagnant, impure atmosphere in which his hammock 
was hung, to the fresh, purer atmosphere of the deck, enabled the 
powers of life to rally, and from that moment he began to recover. 
Even the miserable remnant of the party who were confined in the 
Black Hole of Calcutta, sick as they were of a malignant, putrid fever, 
recovered on being admitted to the fresh air of heaven, under proper 
medical treatment. But the history of this whole affair is a terrible 
lesson on this subject, which though often repeated, cannot, be too 
often dwelt upon. This Black Hole is a prison in Calcutta, ] 8 feet 
square, into which the Nabob of Bengal after the capture of Fort 
William from the British in 1756, thrust 146 English prisoners. The 
only opening to the air, except the door, was by two windows on the 
same side, strongly barred with iron. Immediately on the closing ot 
the door a profuse perspiration burst out on every prisoner. In less 
than an hour their thirst became intolerable, and their breathing dif- 
ficult. The cry was universal and incessant for air and water, but 
the former could only come in through the grated windows, and the lat- 
ter, when supplied by the guards without, only aggravated their dis- 
tress. All struggled to get near the windows, and in this death-strug- 
gle as it were, many were trampled under foot. In less than three 
hours several had died, and nearly all the rest were delirious and 
prayed for death in any form. On the opening of the doors at six 
o'clock in the morning, less than eleven hours after it was closed, death 
had indeed come to the relief of 123 out of the 146, and the remain- 
der had sunk down on their dead bodies sick with a putrid fever. Now 
what did all this anguish, and these murderous results spring from ? 
From breathing over and over again air which had become vitiated 
and poisonous by passing repeatedly through the lungs, and by exhal- 
ations from the surface of the bodies of the persons confined there. 
" This terrible example," says Dr. Combe in his Principles of Phys- 
iology, " ought not to be lost upon us, and if results so appalling arise 
from the extreme corruption of the air, results, less obvious and sud- 
den, but no less certain, may be expected from every lesser degree 
of impurity." 

" In our school-rooms," says Dr. Bell, " churches, hospitals and 
places of pifblic evening amusements, and even in our private dor- 
mitories, we not unfrequently make near approaches to the summa 
ry poisoning process of the Black Hole at Calcutta." We do not 
appreciate the magnitude of the evils produced by breathing frequent- 
ly, even for a short period at any one time, a vitiated atmosphere, 
because the ultimate results are both remote, and the accumulation or 
repeated exposures. Besides, the immediate effects may be not only 
slight, but may apparently disappear on our breathing again a free and 
pure air, so that we forget to appreciate the temporary inconvenience 
or suffering, and to refer them to their true cause. How often do we 
retire at night, perfectly well, and rise up in the morning unrefreshed 
with sleep, with an aching head, a feverish skin, and a sick stomach, 
without reflecting that these symptoms of a diseased system are the 
necessary effects of breathing the atmosphere of a chamber, narrow 



46 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

in its dimensions, closed against any fresh supply from without, and 
not unlikely, made still more close by a curtained bed, and exhausted 
of even its small quantity of oxygen, by a burning fire or lamp? 
These same causes, a little longer in operation, or a little more active, 
would produce death as surely, although not as suddenly, as a pan 
of ignited charcoal in the room. Who has not noticed that the faint- 
ing and sickness which so often visit persons, and especially females 
of delicate health in crowded churches and lecture-rooms, only occurs 
after the air has become overheated and vitiated, by having been a 
long time breathed, and that an exposure to the open air generally 
restores the irregular or suspended circulation of the blood 1 In the 
relief and newness of life which we experience on emerging from such 
places of crowded resort, we forget that the weariness and languor, 
both of mind and body which we suffered within, were mainly the 
depressing effects of the imperfectly vitalized blood, and that the relief 
is simply the renovated life and vigor, which the same blood, purified 
of its carbon by coming in contact with the oxygen of the air, imparts 
to the whole system, and especially to the brain. But in spite of our 
forgetfulness of the cause, or the apparent disappearance of the tem- 
porary inconvenience and distress, which should warn us to beware- 
of a repetition of the same offence against the laws of comfort and 
health, repeated exposures are sure to induce or develope any tendency 
to disease, especially of a pulmonary or nervous character, in our con- 
stitutions, and to undermine slowly the firmest health. Who can look 
round on a workshop of fifteen or twenty females, breathing the 
same unrenewed atmosphere, and sitting perhaps in a position which 
constrains the free play of the lungs, and not feel that disease, and 
in all probability, disease in the form of that fell destroyer of our fair 
countrywomen, consumption, will select from among those industrious 
girls, its ill starred victims ? The languor, debility, loss of appetite, 
difficulty of breathing, coughs, distortion of the frame, (fallen away 
from the roundness natural to youth and health,) nervous irritability, 
and chronic affections of various kinds, so common among females 
in factories, even in our own healthy New England, or those who 
have retired from such factories to their own homes to die, or wear 
out a dying life all their days, are the natural fruits of an exposure,, 
day after day, to an atmosphere constantly becoming more impure- 
from the vitiated breath of forty or fifty persons, and rendered still 
more unfit for respiration by dust and minute particles floating in 
it, tending to irritate the already inflamed and sensitive mem ;rane 
which incloses the air cells of the lungs. To this exposure in the 
workroom should be added the want of cheerful exercise, and inno- 
cent recreation in the open air, and the custom of herding together 
at night in the small, unventilated sleeping apartments of our factory 
boarding-houses. 

In the school-room the same poisoning process goes on day after 
day, and if the work is less summary, it is in the end more extensive- 
ly fatal, than in the Black Hole of Calcutta. Every man and wo'nan, 
who received any portion of their early education in the c t >mmon school^ 
can testify to the narrow dimensions',, and low ceiling of the school" 



VENTILATION. 



47 



rooms, and to the discomfort arising from the close, stagnant, offen- 
sive atmosphere, which they were obliged to breathe. Who does 
not remember the comparative freshness and vigor of mind and body 
with which the morning's study and recitations were begun, and the 
languor and weariness of body, the confusion of mind, the dry 
skin, the flushed cheek, the aching head, the sickening sensations, 
the unnatural demand for drink, the thousand excuses to get out of 
doors, which came along in succession as the day advanced, and espe- 
cially in a winter's afternoon, when the overheated and unrenewed 
atmosphere had become obvious to every sense ? These were nature's 
signals of distress, and who can forget the delicious sensations with 
which her holy breath, when admitted on the occasional opening of 
the door, would visit the brow and face, and be felt all along the revi- 
talized blood, or the newness of life with which nerve, muscle, and 
mind were endued by free exercise in the open air at the recess, and 
the close of the school? Let any one who is sceptical on this point 
visit the school of his own district, where his own children perhaps are 
condemned to a shorter allowance of pure air than the criminals of the 
State, and he cannot fail to see in the pale and wearied countenances 
of the pupils, the languor and uneasiness manifested, especially by the 
younger children, and exhaustion and irritability of the teacher, a de- 
monstration that the atmosphere of the room is no longer such as the 
comfort, health and cheerful labor of both teacher and pupils require. 

In this way the seeds of disease are sown broadcast among 
the young, and especially among teachers of delicate health. " In 
looking back," says the venerable Dr. Woodbridge in a communication 
on school-houses to the American Institute of Instruction, " upon the 
languor of fifty years of labor as a teacher, reiterated with many a 
weary day, I attribute a great proportion of it to mephetic air ; nor can 
I doubt, that it has compelled many worthy and promising teachers 
to quit the employment. Neither can I doubt, that it has been the 
great cause of their subsequently sickly habits and untimely decease."' 
A physician in Massachusetts, selected two schools, of nearly the- 
same number of children, belonging to families of the same condition 
of life, and no causes, independent of the circumstances of their sev- 
eral school-houses, were known to affect their health. One house- 
was dry and properly ventilated — the other damp, and not ventilated. 
In the former, during a period of forty-five days, five scholars were- 
absent from sickness to the amount in the whole of twenty days. In 
the latter, during the same period of time and from the same cause, 
nineteen children were absent to an amount in all of one hundred and 
forty-five days, and the appearance of the children not thus detained 
by sickness indicated a marked difference in their condition as to 
health. 

The necessity of renewing the atmosphere, does not arise solely 
from the consumption of the oxygen, and the constant generation of 
carbonic acid, but from the presence of other destructive agents, and 
impurities. There is carburetted hydrogen, which Dr. Dunglinson 
in his Physiology, characterizes, "as very depressing to the vita! 
unctions. Even when largely diluted with atmospheric air, it occa 



48 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

sions vertigo, sickness, diminution of the force and velocity Oi 
the pulse, reduction of muscular vigor and every symptom of di- 
minished power." There is also sulphuretted hydrogen, which the 
same author says, in its pure state, kills instantly, and in its dilu- 
ted state, produces powerful sedative effects on the pulse, muscles, 
and whole nervous system. There are also offensive and destructive 
impurities arising from the decomposition of animal and vegeta- 
ble matter in contact with the stove, or dissolved in the evaporating 
dish. 

The objects to be attained are — the removal of such impurities, as 
have been referred to, and which are constantly generated, wher- 
ever there is animal life and burning fires, and the due supply of that 
vital principle, which is constantly consumed by breathing and com- 
bustion. The first can be in no other way effectually secured, but 
by making provision for its escape into the open air, both at the top 
and the bottom of the room; and the second, but by introducing a 
current of pure air from the outside of the building, warmed in win- 
ter by a furnace, or in some other mode, before entering the room. 
The two processes should go on together — i. e. the escape of the 
vitiated air from within, and the introduction of the pure air from 
without. The common fireplace and chimney secures the first ob- 
ject very effectually, for there is always a strong current of air near 
the floor, towards the fire, to support combustion, and supply the par- 
tial vacuum in the chimney occasioned by the ascending column of 
smoke and rarified air, and in this current the carbonic acid and other 
impurities will be drawn into the fire and up the chimney. But there 
is such an enormous waste of heat in these fireplaces, and such a 
constant influx of cold air through every crevice in the imperfect fit- 
tings of the doors and windows, to supply the current always ascend- 
ing the chimney, that this mode of ventilation should not be relied 
on. The common mode of ventilating, by opening a window or door, 
although better than none, is also imperfect and objectionable ; as 
the cold air falls directly on the head, neck, and other exposed parts 
of the body, when every pore is open, and thus causes discomfort, 
catarrh, and other more serious evils, to those sitting near, besides 
reducing the temperature of the whole room too suddenly and too 
low. This mode, however, should be resorted to at recess. 

There should be one or more openings, expressly for ventilation, 
both at the top and the bottom of the room, of not less than twelve 
inches square, capable of being wholly or partially closed by a slide 
of wood or metal, and, if possible, these openings, or the receptacle 
into which they discharge, should be connected with the chimney or 
smoke-flue, in which there is already a column of heated air. By an 
opening in or near the ceiling, the warmer impurities (and air when 
heated, and especially when over-heated, will retain noxious gases 
longer) will pass off. By an opening near the floor, into the smoke- 
flue, the colder impurities (and carbonic acid, and the other noxious 
gases, which at first rise, soon diffuse themselves through the at- 
mosphere, cool, and subside towards the floor) will be drawn in to 
supply the current of heated air and smoke ascending the chimney . 



VENTILATION. ^g 

These openings, however, may let cold air in, and will not always 
secure the proper ventilation of a school-room, unless there is a cur- 
rent of pure warm air flowing in at the same time. Whenever there 
is such a current there will be a greater economy, as well as a more 
rapid and uniform diffusion of the heat, by inserting the outlet for the 
vitiated air near the floor, and at the greatest distance from the inlet 
of warm air. 

The ventilation of factories, mines, reading rooms, and halls in- 
tended for large assemblies of people, has received, of late, much at- 
tention from men of science and large practical views in England. 
In factories, the large apartments are heated by steam or hot water 
pipes, and the air which has become vitiated by breathing and per- 
spiration, is drawn out by a fan-ventilator. This contrivance resem- 
bles somewhat our common fanning mill, or machine for winnowing 
grain. The impure air of the room is drawn into the fan to supply 
that which is condensed by the revolving wings, and forced out 
through a pipe leading into the open air. 

In the House of Commons, the rapid change of air is effected by 
means of an artificial draft in a chimney erected on the outside of 
the building, and in which a large fire is kept burning, for this pur- 
pose solely. The fresh air from without is first introduced through 
a perforated wall into a chamber below, connected by doors with an 
apartment containing the hot water apparatus for warming the house. 
The pure air can chen be warmed or not, according to the season of 
the year, before it passes into the apartments above. This is done, 
not by rising in a large volume, through one or two openings, but im- 
perceptibly through a large number of very small holes in the floor. 
The air thus admitted, after becoming vitiated by respiration and 
combustion, escapes through apertures concealed in the ornaments 
of the ceiling into a common flue or receptacle above, which is con- 
nected by a descending pipe with the chimney noticed before. In 
warm weather, the air, before passing into the house, is cooled and 
freshened by jets of water playing through it, and by the melting of 
bags of ice suspended in the chamber below. 

The rooms of the Wellington Club, Liverpool, are warmed and 
ventilated in nearly the same way. The air from without is first 
cleansed from all particles of coal dust, and other impurities, by 
being passed through water, and then brought to the right tempera- 
ture by steam pipes in the air-chamber below. It is then forced into 
the room by a revolving fan through a band of minutely perforated 
zinc, which skirts the large apartments. Concealed in the ornament- 
al work of the ceiling, are openings communicating with an air- 
chamber above, in which is a chimney shaft, and in the draft pro- 
duced by a fire in this, the vitiated air is carried off so rapidly that 
the odor of a small quantity of rose-water poured into the air-cham- 
ber below, is, in a few seconds, perceptible in every part of the 
room. 

The principles involved in the expensive modes of ventilation 
above described, can be carried out in any apartment heated by a fur- 
nace or other modes of warming pure air before it is introduced 

4 



50 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

which will be treated of in speaking of the temperature of school 
rooms. 

There is a mischievous error prevailing, that if a room is kept at 
a low temperature there is no need of ventilation. Dr. Alcott men- 
tions the case of a teacher, who when asked if she did not find it diffi- 
cult to keep her room ventilated, replied, " not at all, it is one of the 
coldest rooms in the city." The necessity of ventilation arises from 
he consumption of the oxygen and the generation and accumu- 
ation of carbonic acid principally in breathing, and both of these pro- 
cesses can go on and do go on, in a cold room, as well as in a warm one, 
if human beings are collected in it, and goes on rapidly and fatally ac- 
cording to the number of persons and the size and closeness of the 
apartment. Dr. Arnott, in his work on " warming and ventilating," 
mentions a striking instance of popular ignorance with respect to this 
subject, and of a mischievous practice founded upon that ignorance 
among some poor girls in Buckinghamshire, England, who gain- 
ed their livelihood by lace-makitvg. To save the expense of fire 
they were wont in winter to choosy among the rooms belonging to 
their families, the smallest which would contain to the number 
of twenty or thirty of them, and then to congregate and keep them- 
selves warm at their work by breathing. The atmosphere of the room, 
as might have been expected by any one acquainted with its consti- 
tution and the process going on, although unperceived by themselves, 
soon became exceedingly offensive to a stranger entering, as well as 
highly injurious to them. The pale faces, broken health and early 
deaths of many of these ignorant self-destroyers were the identical re- 
sults, a little more remote, which are caused by the atmosphere of our 
school-rooms, churches, manufactories and other places where men 
women or children, are crowded together. These results are quick- 
ened in an overheated atmosphere, because such air has less oxygen, 
and retains the impure gases longer. Still the scenes of death and 
misery in the Black Hole of Calcutta would have taken place, if the 
same prison-house had been in Greenland. 

5. Temperature. 

The means of producing, diffusing and duly regulating artificial 
heat in a school-room, is, in a climate like ours, another of the indis- 
pensable conditions of health, comfort and successful labor. To 
effect this, the structure, must not be " a summer-house for winter 
.residence," but be calculated to keep out the cold wind and espe- 
cially to prevent its entering at cracks, and defects in the doors, win- 
dows, floors, and plastering, so as to fall suddenly and directly only 
on the feet, neck, or other sensitive and exposed portions of the body. 
Fuel of the right kind, in the right condition, in suitable quantity and 
in due season must be provided. The best modes of consuming it so 
as to extract its heat and diffuse it equally through all parts of the 
.room and "„i,ain it as long as is safe, must be resorted to. The means 
of re^ mating it, so as to keep up a uniform temperature in different 
,paits of the room, and to graduate it to the varying circumstance s of a 



WARMING. g l 

school at different periods of the day, and in different states of the 
weather, must not be overlooked. 

The open stove with large pipe, not bending till the horizontal part 
is carried ten or twelve feet above the heads of the children, affords 
as effectual, economical and unobjectionable a mode of consuming the 
fuel and disseminating the heat as any stove of this kind. It is far 
superior in point of economy to the open fireplace, as ordinari- 
ly constructed, in which near seven eights of the heat evolved ascends 
the chimney and only one eighth, or according to Rumford and Frank- 
lin, only one fifteenth is radiated from the front of the fire into 
the room. It has to some extent the cheerful light of the open fire, 
to which habit, and association have attached us, and the advantages 
of the latter, in opening broadly near the floor, and thus drawing in 
the colder air with the carbonic acid in the current which goes 
to sustain the combustion and ascend the large pipe of the stove. 
Unless the common mode of constructing fireplaces and chim- 
neys can be greatly improved, or the original Franklin fireplace 
or the double fireplace be substituted, there is no advantage in the open 
fireplace which cannot be secured in the large open stove. The orig- 
inal Franklin stove, or fireplace was constructed of cast iron, and by 
means of a circuitous chimney or smoke flue, which was surround- 
ed and intersected by air passages, opening at one end out of doors, 
and at the other into the room, the heat of the fire was retained, 
and a current of fresh warm air was constantly flowing into the room. 
This is quite a different thing from the ordinary open fireplace. The 
double fireplace is a modification of Franklin's plan. It is made from 
any common fireplace by inserting within it another fireplace made 
of soap stone, leaving an empty space of about an inch in depth, be- 
tween the two, so that when finished the back and sides may be hol- 
low. This hollow space, communicates at one end with the open air 
by a pipe, and the other opens into the room, on the side of the chim- 
ney. In this fireplace the advantages of an open fire of wood orcoa 
can be enjoyed at the same time a current of air is warmed ir 
the rear of the fire. 

Various plans have been proposed and adopted, to make the com- 
mon stove, whether close or open, serviceable in warming pure air 
before it is thrown into the room. Mr. Woodbridge in his essay on 
school-houses, describes one as follows : — the stove is inclosed on 
three sides in a case of sheet iron, leaving a space of two or three 
inches beneath and around the stove, and as it rises around it becomes 
warmed before it enters the room at the top of the case. The case 
is movable so as to allow of the cleaning out of any dust which might 
collect between it and the stove. Mr. Palmer in his Manual for 
Teachers, secures the same object by conducting the air from without, 
into a passage which traverses the bottom of the stove five or six times 
before it enters the room, and thus becomes warm. 

In Millar's patent ventilating school-house stove the air is conducted 
from without, into a chamber below the fire-plate, and after circulating 
through pipes around the fire, escapes into the room. A more minute 
description will be given in the second part of this essay. 



52 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The same thing can be secured by a similar arrangement connect" 
ed with stoves for burning arthracite coal. In the Olmsted stove, for 
instance, the pure air from without can be made to pass in con- 
tact with the exterior, as well as the interior surface of the radiators 
and thus be warmed before entering the room. This stove has an 
advantage, in admiting of the slow combustion of billets of wood in 
connection with nut or pea coal, and thus maintaining a fire which 
will keep up a uniform temperature of the proper degree at the 
cheapest rate. The large radiating surface, which is nothing more 
than prolonged pipe, conveniently arranged, imbibes and diffuses all 
the heat evolved by the combustion of the fuel, so that at the point where 
it enters the chimney, the heat of the pipe is scarcely perceptible. 

The best mode, however, at the same time of warming and ventila- 
ting a school-room, especially if it is large, is by pure air heated in a 
stove or furnace placed in the cellar or a room lower than the one to be 
warmed. No portion of the room, or the movements of the scholars, 
or the supervision of the teacher, are encumbered or interrupted by 
stove or pipe. The fire in such places can be maintained with- 
out noise and without throwing dust or smoke into the room. The of- 
fensive odors and impurities of burnt air, or rather of particles of veg- 
etable or animal matter floating in the air, are not experienced. The 
heat can be conducted into the room at different points, and is 
thus diffused so as to secure a uniform summer temperature in every 
part of it. A room thus heated, even without any special arrangements 
for this object, will be tolerably well ventilated, for the constant influx 
of warm pure air into the room will force that which is already in it out 
at every crack and crevice, and thus reverse the process which is or- 
dinarily going on in every school-room. By an opening or rather sev- 
eral small openings into the ceiling, or a flue, which in either case 
should connect with the outer air, the escape of the impure air will 
be more effectually secured. 

But whatever may be the mode of warming adopted, whether bjr 
open fireplace, or grate, stove for wood or coal, or furnace, the tem- 
perature of the room should be uniform, and of the proper degree in 
every part. Not a child should be exposed to sudden and extreme 
changes of temperature, or compelled when overheated, or at any time, 
to sit against an inlet of cold air, or, with cold feet. This last is a vi- 
olation of an indispensable condition of health. To secure a uniform 
temperature, a thermometer will not only be convenient, but necessary. 
It cannot be ascertained, for different parts of a room or for thirty or 
forty persons, differently circumstanced as to heat or cold, or differ- 
ently employed, some of whom are seated, some standing or changing 
their position from time to time, without some less variable and uncer- 
tain standard than the teacher's feelings. However anxious he may 
be to make every scholar comfortable, he cannot be conscious at all 
times of the differing circumstances in which they are placed. He is 
not exposed to the rush of cold air from a broken or loose window, or 
from cracks in the ceiling, or the floor. He is not roasted by a seat 
too near the stove. He is not liable to a stagnation of the blood in 
he feet from want of exercise or an inconvenient bench. Even though 



WARMING. gg 

ae were capable of thus sympathizing with, them, the temperature 01 
the room after the fire is thoroughly going, and the doors closed, mav 
pass gradually from 65° to 90° without the change becoming percep- 
tible. Now though we may breathe freely in such an atmosphere, 
gradually heated, we cannot pass into the open air 40° or 50° colder, 
as would be the case on most winter days, and much less receive a 
current of such air on a portion, and a sensitive portion of the body, 
without great danger. With a thermometer in the room, the begin- 
ning and progress of such a change would be indicated, and could 
be guarded against. 

In our arrangement for artificial warmth, especially in all stoves for 
burning anthracite coal, where intense heat is liable to be communi- 
cated to the iron surface, if we would preserve the purity of the atmos- 
phere at all degrees of temperature, it is necessary to secure the 
presence of a certain quantity of moisture. The difference between 
winds blowing from different quarters, as to health and comfort, is 
principally owing to the proportion of moisture they contain. When- 
ever the air has less than its due proportion, it becomes powerfully 
absorbent of it in every thing with which it comes in contact, whether 
vegetable or animal. Hence the impression of burnt air, the disagree- 
able sensation of dryness on the surface of the body, and the delicate 
membrane of the throat, the shrinking and cracking of furniture, the 
blight and withering of plants, which are universally experienced in a 
dry and overheated apartment. Most of these and other effects may 
be avoided by not overheating the air, but not altogether. There is 
a difference in the moisture of the atmosphere at different times, 
without reference to artificial warmth, and however careful we may 
be to maintain a uniform low temperature in a school-room, we are 
liable to experience some of the inconveniences above referred to. 
These can be avoided, even where the room is overheated, by an evap- 
orating dish supplied with pure water. The water should be frequent- 
ly changed. The gathering and settling of dirt and other impurities 
in the vessel containing the water can be guarded against by closing 
the top except .to admit a suspended linen or cotton cloth, which will 
absorb the water and give it out again from its exposed surface. 

6. Seats and Desks for Scholars. 

In the construction and arrangement of the seats and desks of a 
school-room, due regard should be had to the convenience, comfort 
and health of those who are to occupy them. To secure these ob- 
jects, they should be made for the young and not for grown persons, 
and of varying heights, for children of different ages, from four 
years and under, to sixteen and upwards. They should be adapted 
to each other and the purposes for which they will be used, such 
as writing and ciphering, so as to prevent any awkward, incon- 
venient or unhealthy positions of the limbs, chest or spine. They 
should be easy of access, so that every scholar can go to and from his 
seat and change his position, and the teacher can approach each scholar 
and give the required attention and instruction, without disturbing 



54 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

any other person than the one concerned. They should be so arranged 
as to facilitate habits of attention, take away all temptation and en- 
couragement to violate the rules of the school on the part of any 
scholar, and admit of the constant and complete supervision of the 
whole school by the teacher. 

Each scholar should be furnished with a seat and desk, properly 
adapted to each other, as to height and distance, and of varying heights, 
the seats from nine inches and a half, to fifteen and a half, with 
desks to correspond) for children of different age or size. The seat 
should be so made, that the feet of every child when properly seated, 
can rest on the floor, and the upper and lower part of the leg form 
a right-angle at the knee ; and the back, whether separated from, or 
forming part of the adjoining desk behind, should recline to cor- 
respond with the natural curves of the spine and the shoulders. 
The seat should be made, as far as possible, like a convenient chair. 

The desk for a single scholar should be, at least, two feet long 
(two and a half is better) by eighteen inches wide, with a shelf be- 
neath for books, and an opening in the backside to receive a slate. 
The upper surface of the desk, except three or four inches of 
the most distant portion, should slope one inch in a foot. On 
the level portion, along the line of the slope there should be a groove 
to prevent pens and pencils from rolling off, and an opening to 
receive an inkstand. The top of the inkstand should be on a level 
with the desk, and be covered by a metallic lid. The end pieces or 
supporters of the desk should be so made as to interfere as little as 
possible with sweeping. 

If the desk is made to accommodate two scholars on one seat, 
a partition, extending from the floor for four or five inches above the 
surface of the desk, should separate them, and if possible they should 
belong to different classes, so that one will be in his seat, while the 
other is at recitation. 

The desk should nor be removed from the seat either in distance 
or height, so far as to require the body, the neck or the chest to be 
bent forward in a constrained manner, or the elbow or shoulder blades 
to be painfully elevated whenever the scholar is writing or ciphering. 
These last positions, to which so many children are forced by the 
badly constructed seats and desks of our ordinary school-houses, have 
led not unfrequently to distortions of the form, and particularly to spi- 
nal affections of the most distressing character. Such marked results 
are principally confined to females of delicate constitutions and stu- 
dious and sedentary habits. While boys and young men engage in 
active exercise and sport during the recess and at the close of the 
school, and thus give relief to the overstrained and unnaturally applied 
muscles, and restore the spring or elasticity to the cushion-like 
substance which gives flexibility to the spinal column ; girls ex- 
ercise less in the open air, indulge but little in those sports which 
give variety of motions to the joints and muscles, and are confined 
to duties and studies which require their being seated out of school 
hours too much and too long at any one time. 

The effects of the posture above described, in writing or ciphering 



SEATS AND DESKS FOR PUPILS. 55 

are increased and even induced by their being compelled to lean against 
the narrow edge of the writing desk, when their faces are turned to- 
wards the teacher. This edge comes against the weakest portion of 
the back, and the inconvenience or pain forces those exposed to it, to 
find relief by resting the elbows on the desk, and thus giving an un- 
natural elevation to the shoulder-blades — or if no support of the kind 
is provided, they lean against each other, support the back by closing 
the hands over the knee, or resort to some other awkward or unnatural 
position, which if long continued will cause more or less of structural 
deviation, amounting not unfrequently to positive disease or deformity. 

Dr. Woodward in a communication appended to Mr. Mann's Re- 
port, remarks : — " High and narrow seats are not only extremely un- 
comfortable for the young scholar, tending constantly to make him 
restless and noisy, disturbing his temper and preventing his attention 
to his books ; but they have also a direct tendency to produce deformity 
of his limbs. As the limbs of children are pliable or flexible, they are 
made to grow out of shape by such awkward and unnatural positions. 

" Seats without backs have an equally unfavorable influence upon 
the spinal column. If no rest is afforded the backs of children while 
seated, they almost necessarily assume a bent and crooked position. 
Such a position often assumed and long continued, tends to that defor- 
mity which has become extremely common with children in modern 
times ; and leads to diseases of the spine in innumerable instances, 
especially with delicate female children." 

Dr. J. V. C. Smith, of Boston, in his Anatomical Class Book, 
says :— " There is a radical defect in the seats of our school-rooms. 
Malformation of the bones, narrow chests, coughs ending in consump- 
tion and death in middle life, besides a multitude of minor ills, have 
often had their origin in the school-room." Again, " To these wretch- 
ed articles, viz. badly constructed seats and writing desks, are we to 
look in some measure for the cause of so many distortions of the bones, 
spinal diseases, chronic affections now so prevalent throughout the 
country." 

Dr. Warren, in his admirable lecture before the American Institute 
of Instruction, in 1830, which should be in the hand of every teacher 
and parent, says : — " In the course of my observation, I have been 
able to satisfy myself that about one half the young females brought 
up as they are at present, undergo some visible and obvious change of 
structure ; that a considerable number are the subjects of great and 
permanent deviations, and that not a few entirely lose their health from 
the manner in which they are reared." And among the causes which 
lead to such mournful results, he enumerates the unnatural elevation 
of the right shoulder, the habit of bending the neck, and the stooping; 
posture of the body when engaged in writing, or similar exercises at. 
school. 

No child should under any circumstances be long, or frequently ex- 
posed to any one or all of these causes of discomfort, deformity or dis- 
ease. Seats and desks can be as easily and cheaply made of different 
heights, and for convenient and healthy postures, as they are now, 
without reference to any such considerations. If desks must be at- 



56 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

tached to sides uf the room, which is objectionable in respect to ease 
of supervision, habits of study, as well as the morals, manners and 
health of children, then let the seats be provided with a movable back 
like those in rail-road cars and in no case be made for more than two. 
The kind of back referred to, is cheap and convenient for desks con- 
structed and arranged on any other plan. It not only affords a proper 
support to the back, but. will allow of the scholars standing up behind 
he seat for reading or recitation, or even for a frequent change of po- 
sition which is so much overlooked in schools, and by students 
of every grade. No position, if long continued, is more irksome or 
more unhealthy, or at least operates so insidiously, and yet directly to 
derange the circulation and other vital functions, as sitting, especially 
upright, or with the neck and chest bent forward. To young children, 
it is cruel in the extreme, and wars directly with all healthy and sym- 
metrical growth, besides ruining the temper, and imparting a lasting 
distaste to study, the school-room, and the teacher. 

Little children are made to suffer, and many of them permanently, 
from being forced to sit long in one position, without any occupation 
for mind or muscles, on seats without backs and so high that their feet 
cannot touch, much less rest on the floor. Nothing but the fear of 
punishment, or its frequent application, can keep a live child still under 
such circumstances, and even that, cannot do it long. Who has not 
an aching remembrance of the torture of this unnatural confinement;, 
and the burning sense of injustice, for punishment inflicted for some 
unavoidable manifestation of uneasiness and pain ! Even though the 
seats are as comfortable as can be made, young children cannot and 
should not be kept still upon them long at a time, and never without 
something innocent or useful to do, and under no circumstances, lon- 
ger than twenty-five or thirty minutes in one position, nor so long at 
one study, and that with frequent and free exercise in the open air. 
To accomplish this, great and radical changes in the views and prac- 
tice of teachers, parents and the community must take place. No 
where, in the whole department of practical education, is a gradual 
change more needed, or should be sooner commenced. 

If school-houses are to consist of but one room for all the children, 
regard must be had to the varying circumstances of the winter and 
summer school. In the former, the larger and older children predom- 
inate, and in the latter, the younger and smaller, and yet in both, the 
younger and smaller are sadly neglected, not only in matters of in- 
struction, but in physical comfort. In summer, they, or at least, a por- 
tion of them, are seated " beyond soundings," on seats intended and 
occupied by the older scholars in winter ; and in winter, they are packed 
away on smooth, high, backless slabs, and in a roasting proximity to 
the fire. Now there is no way of remedying this state of things, but 
by having a school-room large enough to accommodate all who may 
attend, and to have seats and appropriate desks for all the children, 
be they young or old, large or small. In the winter, let so many of 
the seats and desks for the smaller children as are not wanted be re- 
moved to the attic, or the wood-room, and their places supplied by some 
for the older, and in the summer let this arrangement be reversed. 



ARRANGEMENTS FOR TEACHER. 57 

The most effectual way of securing appropriate accommodations 
for children of different age and size, is to have two or more school- 
rooms, one of which shall be for the younger, and be fitted up accord- 
ingly. At one end, with no windows in the wall, should be a plat- 
form of seats rising one above the other, on which the children can 
be arranged at suitable times, for inspection as to cleanliness, for man- 
ual exercise, and for all simultaneous exercises, such as singing, 
simple operations of mental arithmetic, reading of scriptural and other 
moral stories, and lessons on real objects, pictures and other visible 
illustrations. The gallery is an economical arrangement in respect 
to space and expense, and enables the children to fix their eye more 
easily on the teacher, and the teacher to observe, explain, be heard, 
and direct more perfectly every movement of the children, and both 
teacher and children, to profit by the great principle of social sympa- 
thy, and imitation. Along the sides of the room should be a pas- 
sage at least two feet wide, and then a desk, so made as to hold a 
thin layer of sand, and receive a slate for each scholar, no matter 
how young. The center of the room should be unencumbered with 
fixtures of any kind, so as to allow of the arrangement of the school 
into drafts or classes, and the free movements of the children when ne- 
cessary. Whatever may be the intellectual and moral exercises of 
schools for small children, they should be varied and in such a man- 
ner as to require frequent and varied physical movements — both change 
of position and place, from sitting to standing, from desk to gallery, 
marching, clapping of hands, and other exercises of the joints and mus- 
cles which shall bring them all into play, singing, &c. Even with 
this diversity of occupation in doors, young children, whose healthy 
and symmetrical growth is governed by the great laws of constant and 
cheerful motion, require gamboling, frolicsome exercises for ten or 
fifteen minutes, as often as every hour they are mentally occupied, in 
the open air, if it is pleasant, or in the woodshed or other cover- 
ed building, in damp or rainy weather. A play-ground, safe from all 
exposure of the health and limbs of children, large enough to allow 
of trundling the hoop, and of free exercise of the limbs, supplied 
with a circular swing, &c, is an indispensable appendage to a school 
where children are to be reared with vigorous and symmetrical bodies 

7. Arrangements for Teacher. 

The arrangements for the teacher should be such, that he can sur 
vey the whole school at a glance, address his instruction, when neces- 
sary, to the whole school, approach each scholar in his seat without 
incommoding any other, and conduct the recitations most convenient- 
ly to himself, and with the least interference with the study of the 
school. 

With this view, his seat and desk should be placed in front of the 
school on a raised platform ; the aisles should be so arranged as to 
separate each range of the scholars' seats ; and an open space, or 
appropriate seats, should be provided for the reciting classes, in front 
or the side of his desk ; or what would be better, a recitation room , 



58 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

opening from the platform, or else a special platform in the rear of the 
school. 

The teacher's desk should be sufficiently large, and appropri- 
ately fitted up, to accommodate his books of reference and apparatus. 

The recitation room, or place for recitation, wherever it may be, 
should be furnished with blackboards, stands for hanging maps and 
diagrams, and all appropriate apparatus. 

If a platform or area for recitation is provided in the rear of the 
chool, the attention of the scholars while reciting will be less likely 
to be disturbed, as the ear only will be attracted by what is going on, 
and the teacher can overlook the school, while conducting the recita- 
tions. 

The teacher should not, however, occupy any one position perma- 
nently, or the mischievous scholars will shape thek - devices for 
concealment accordingly, and a position in the rear of the school, ex- 
cept for convenience in recitation, is better calculated to detect than 
prevent transgression. The eye of the teacher, that great instrument 
of moral discipline, cannot invite confidence, or meet the answering 
confidence of the pupil. 

8. Apparatus. 

No school-room can be considered complete which is not provided 
with such fixtures, and means of visible illustration, as will aid the 
teacher in cultivating in his pupils, habits of correct observation, com 
parison, and classification, and in making the knowledge communi- 
cated by books orally, accurate, vivid and practical. 

One blackboard, at least, is indispensably necessary. This should 
be so placed, as to be easily accessible, and in full view of the whole 
school. The larger it is, the more useful it can be made. The 
board should be free from knots, or cracks, well seasoned, smoothly 
planed, and then rubbed with sand-paper, and painted black, without 
varnish. On the lower side should be placed a trough to receive the 
chalk or crayon, tin or brass holders, (called port-crayons) a rubber of 
cloth, wash-leather, or sponge. If the board is broad, or in two 
or more parts, it should be kept from warping or opening by cleates 
of iron or wood on the back side or ends. 

If there is but one blackboard, it should be movable, so as to be 
used in different parts of the room. For this purpose, it must be sus- 
pended on hooks, or rings inserted in the upper edge, or what is bet- 
ter, on a movable frame, like the painter's easel. It is better, 
and will add but little to the expense, to provide, in addition to the 
large one, directly back of the teacher, two or three smaller and 
portable ones. Every recitation room should be lined with black 
boards. 

Each desk should be furnished with a slate, pencil holder and 
sponge. A slate to every scholar, young or old, is, if possible, 
more necessary than a blackboard. It is a miserable economy 
to withhold slates from children on account of their liability to be bro- 
ken. The saving in the wear and tear of books, effected by the use 



APPARATUS. 59 

of slates, will more than pay for the latter, especially if they are set 
in a good oak frame, fastened tightly around the corners by a band 
of sheet iron, or even by cord or wire. The iron or wire, if used, 
should not project beyond the surface of the frame, or it will scratch 
the desk. The most appropriate place for the slate is an opening in 
the backside of the desk. The pencil holder can be made of brass 
or tin, about the size of a quill, with two slits at the end into which 
a short peice of pencil can be put. Without such a holder, no child 
should be allowed to use a short pencil. He will immediately ac- 
quire the habit of contracting his fingers around it, so as to unfit him- 
self for holding a pen properly. If pencil holders are not provided, 
a long pencil should be, and the brittleness of the common slate pen- 
cil can be obviated by rolling it up in strong paper covered with paste. 
When dry, the paper and pencil can be shaped like an ordinary 
lead pencil. 

With the blackboard and slate, there is no study from the simplest 
rudiments up to the highest department of science which cannot be il- 
lustrated and taught to better advantage, 'than without them, while 
there are some to whose attainment they are absolutely indispensable. 
It is painful to go into our schools, and see how many little children 
are trying to sit still, with no occupation for the hands, the eye, or the 
mind, who might be innocently and usefully employed, in a sand 
desk, or with a slate and pencil, in printing the alphabet, combining 
letters, syllables, or words, copying the outlines of angles, circles, sol- 
ids, or maps, diagrams, real objects ; thus acquiring knowledge 
as well as correctness of eye and rapidity of hand, which will be of 
great use afterwards in learning to write and draw with the pen on 
paper. It will be found invariably that children, who begin early 
with the use of the slate, and the blackboard, in writing, drawing, 
spelling, arithmetic, grammar, are more accurate, rapid and practical 
scholars than others much older and with better opportunities in other 
respects, who have not been accustomed to their use. The above 
articles of apparatus may be considered indispensable, and should 
not be left to the chance supply of parents. But there are other means 
in training the senses and forming correct elementary ideas which 
should be provided as far as practicable. 

A clock, which strikes at stated intervals, is indispensable to a just 
distribution of the teacher's time and attention among the various 
classes and studies of the school, and may be made highly useful in 
imparting a correct elementary knowledge, of the comparative lengths 
of different portions of time, from a second to a century, and so of the 
chronology of the human race. 

The measure of an inch, foot, yard, and rod, marked off on the edge 
of the blackboard, will give a correct and visible standard of distance, 
to which all statements, or references in the lessons can be brought 
to the test. 

The cardinal points accurately ascertained by the compass, paint- 
ed on the ceiling, or on the teacher's platform, and associated by fre- 
quent references of the teacher, with the parts of the heavens in which 
the sun rises and sets, will be of incalculable service in the study of 



QO SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

geography. In this connection, and as introductory to drawing, 
plans of the school-house, playground, village-green, district, town, 
and county, will lead children to an accurate conception of states, 
continents, the earth, and the system of which it forms a part. The 
ideas connected with the subjects last named, cannot be properly un- 
derstood without a globe, tellurium, orrery and similar apparatus. 

Counters, or flat pieces of wood about an inch long and half an inch 
wide, a numeral frame, real measures of every kind, linear, superfi- 
cial, solid and liquid, weights, models and diagrams of the geometri- 
cal forms, and solids, — articles which the pupil can touch, see, exam- 
ine, experiment with, copy on the slate or blackboard, will prove 
invaluable helps in teaching children to form correct elementary ideas 
of number, size, distance, form, and measurement. 

The study of geography and history can be made far more useful 
and interesting by pictures representing the great curiosities of nature 
and art, views of cities, and other places memorable for great events, 
the manners, dress, edifices, ruins &c, peculiar to each country. 
One set of plates, could answer very well for all the schools of a so- 
ciety or town, and pass in succession through the several districts. 

For the study of the natural sciences, and there is no study which 
can be made more useful or delightful in the hands of a judicious 
teacher, cheap collections of minerals, and specimens or drawings of 
plants and animals, would not only be useful but necessary. In this 
department the children could collect their own cabinets, and an inter- 
change of specimens between the different districts and towns be ef- 
fected. Some of the hot days of summer had better be spent in the 
fields, or the woods in search of the beautiful things which God has 
scattered over the earth and through it, with a teacher, who has 
a taste for natural science, than in the hot, unshaded school-house of 
many districts. 

The Magic Lantern in almost any of its improved forms, and espe- 
cially in Carpenter's, is accompanied with diagrams to illustrate as- 
tronomy, natural history, cities, landscapes, costumes, &c, which 
bring the objects and truths represented so vividly before the younsr, 
that they never can forget them. 

The inefficiency of school education of every name, is mainly ow- 
ing to the want of such cheap and simple aids as have been briefly 
alluded to above, and of methods of instruction based upon, and 
adapted to them, begun early and continued throughout the whole 
course. Hence much of the knowledge of early life is forgotten, and 
more of it lies in dead, useless, unassimilated masses, in the memory. 
It does not originate, or mould, or color the meditations of the closet, 
and is not felt in the labor of the field, the workshop, or any of the 
departments of practical life. The knowledge then found' availa- 
ble is the result of self-education, the education attained after leaving 
school by observation, experience and reading. Under any opportu- 
nities of school education, this self-education must be the main re- 
liance, and the great object of all regular school arrangements should 
be to wake up the spirit, and begin the work of self-culture as early 
and widely as possible. 



APPARATUS AND LIBRARY. Q\ 



9. Library. 



The school-house is the appropriate depository of the district libra- 
ry, and a library of well selected books, open to the teacher, children, 
and adults generally of the district, for reference and reading, gives 
completeness to the permanent means of school and self-education, 
which can be embraced in the arrangement of a school-house. 

The teacher should be able to extend his own acquaintance with 
the studies pursued, and to illustrate and explain any name, date, event, 
terms of art or science, or other allusion or question which might 
occur in the regular lesson, or which the natural curiosity of children, 
if encouraged, would suggest. Above all should he be furnished 
with the best books which have been published on education, and es- 
pecially with that class which have special reference to the duties 
and labors of the school-room, and have been prepared by experienced 
and successful teachers. 

Children, even the youngest, should be provided with such books, 
adapted to their age and capacity, as will invest their studies with new 
interest, help them to observe and understand what they see and hear 
by the road side, in the field and in their daily conversations, and form 
a high standard to aim at in manners, morals and intellectual attain- 
ments. Many an idle hour would thus be redeemed, and the process 
of self-culture be commenced, which would go on long after their 
school-life was ended. 

The farmer, mechanic, manufacturer, and in fine, all the inhabit- 
ants of a district, of both sexes, and in every condition and employ- 
ment of life, should have books which will shed light and dignity on 
their several vocations, help them better to understand the history and 
condition of the world, and country in which they live, their own 
nature, and their relations and duties to society, themselves and their 
Creator. All that is wanted to fill the community with diligent and 
profitable readers among all classes, is to gratify the natural curios- 
ity of every child " to know," to convert that curiosity into a well 
regulated taste, and confirm that taste into a habit, by easy access to 
a library of appropriate books. 

Without such books the instruction of the school-room does not be- 
come practically useful, and the art of printing is not made available 
to the poor as well as the rich. The rich can always command more 
or less of the valuable works which the teeming press of the day is 
throwing off, but the poor must depend for their reading, on such 
books as public libraries, easily accessible, or the benevolence of more 
favored individuals, may supply. 

Wherever such libraries have existed, especially in connection 
with the advantages of superior schools, and an educated ministry 
they have- called forth talent and virtue, which would otherwise have 
been buried in poverty and ignorance, to elevate, bless, and purify so- 
ciety. The establishment of a library in every school-house, will 
bring thfe mighty instrument of good books to act more directly and 
more broadly on the entire population of a state, than it has ever yet 



62 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

done, for i will open the fountains of knowledge without money, and 
without price, to the humble and the elevated, the poor and the rich. 

10. Yard and External Arrangements. 

The external arrangement of a school-house, as connected with its 
attractiveness and convenience, and the health, manners, morals, love 
of study and proficiency of the pupils, must not be overlooked. 

The building should not only be located on a dry, healthy and plea- 
sant site, but be surrounded by a yard, of never less than half an acre, 
protected by a neat and substantial inclosure. This yard should be 
large enough in front, for all to occupy in common for recreation and 
sport, and planted with oaks, elms, maples, and other shady trees, 
tastefully arranged in groups, and around the sides. In the rear of the 
building, it should be divided by a high, and close fence, and one por- 
tion, appropriately fitted up, should be assigned exclusively for the 
use of the bovs, and the other, for the girls. Over this entire arrange- 
ment, the most perfect neatness, seclusion, order and propriety should 
be enforced, and every thing calculated to defile the mind, or wound 
the delicacy or the modesty of the most sensitive, should receive at- 
tention in private, and be made a matter of parental advice and 
co-operation. 

In cities and populous districts, particular attention should be paid 
to the playground, as connected with the physical education of chil- 
dren. In the best conducted schools, the playground is now regard- 
ed as the uncovered school-room, where the real dispositions, and habits 
of the pupils are more palpably developed, and can be more wisely 
trained, than under the restraint of an ordinary school-room. These 
grounds are provided with circular swings, and are large enough for 
various athletic games. To protect the children in their sports in 
inclement weather, in some places, the school-house is built on piers; 
in others, the basement story is properly fitted up, and thrown open 
as a playground ; and in others, the wood, or coal shed is built 
large for that purpose. Under any circumstances the school-room 
should not be used for any other, than purposes of study and conver- 
sation. 

An appropriate place for fuel should be provided, which, it may 
be well to remark, should be supplied of the right quality, in proper 
quantity, in due season, and in the right condition for being used. 

Every school-house should have its own well, with suitable arrange- 
ments for drink, and for the cleanliness of the pupils. 

A bell is always found an essential help in securing punctual at 
tendance, and determining when the time of recess begins and ends. 



III. PLANS OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. 

In determining the details of construction and arrangement for a 
school-house, due regard must, of course, be had to the varying cir- 
cumstances of country and city, of a large and a small number of 
scholars, of schools of different grades, and of different systems of 
instruction. 

1. In by far the largest number of country districts as they are 
now situated, there will be but one school-room, with a smaller room 
for recitations and other purposes needed. This must be arranged 
and fitted up for scholars of all ages, for the varying circumstances of 
a summer and of a winter school, and for other purposes, religious 
and secular, than those of a school, and in every particular of con- 
struction and arrangement, the closest economy of material and labor 
must be studied. A union of two or more districts for the purpose of 
maintaining in each a school for the younger children, and in the 
center of the associated districts a school for the older children of all, 
or, what would be better, a consolidation of two or more districts into 
one, for these and all other school purposes, would do away with the 
almost insuperable difficulties which now exist in country districts, 
in the way of comfortable and attractive school-houses, as well as of 
thoroughly governed and instructed schools. 

2. In small villages, or populous country districts, at least two 
school-rooms should be provided, and as there will be other places for 
public meetings of various kinds, each room should be appropriated 
and fitted up exclusively for the use of the younger or the older 
pupils. It is better, on many accounts, to have two schools on the 
same floor, than one above the other. 

3. In large villages and cities, a better classification of the schools 
can be adopted, and, of course, more completeness can be given to 
the construction and arrangement of the buildings and rooms appro- 
priated to each grade of schools. This classification should embrace 
at least three grades — viz. Primary, with an infant department ; Sec- 
ondary, or Grammar ; Superior, or High Schools. In manufacturing 
villages, and in certain sections of large cities, regularly organized 
Infant Schools should be established and devoted mainly to the cul- 
ture of the morals, manners, language and health of very young 
children. 

4. The arrangement as to supervision, instruction and recitations, 
must have reference to the size of the school ; the number of teachers 
and assistants ; the general organization of the school, whether in 
one room for study, and separate class rooms for recitation, or the 
several classes in distinct rooms under appropriate teachers, each 
teacher having specified studies ; and the method of instruction pur- 
sued, whether the mutual, simultaneous, or mixed. 

Since the year 1830, and especially since 1838, much ingenuity 
has been expended by practical teachers and architects, in devising 
and perfecting plans of school-houses, with all the details of con- 
struction and fixtures, modified to suit the varied circumstances enu- 
merated above, specimens of which, with explanations and descrip- 
tions, will be here given. 



64 school architecture. 

1. Plans of School-houses recommended by practical 
Teachers and Educators. 

Plan, &c. recommended by Dr. Alcott, and by the American Insti 
tute of Instruction. 

In 1830 the American Institute of Instruction offered a premium for the 
best Essay " On the Construction of School-houses" which was awarded in 
Aug. 1831, to Dr. William A. Alcott, of Hartford. The Prize Essay* was 
published in the proceedings of the Institute of the same year, together with 
a " Plan for a Village School-house,' 1 '' devised by a Committee of the Direc- 
tors of the Institute. 

The plan of the school-room recommended by Dr. Alcott, although less 
complete in some of its details, is substantially the same as that recommended 
by Mr. Mann, and can be easily understood by reference to the cut of the 
latter on the opposite page. The room, to accommodate 56 pupils each, with 
a separate seat and desk, and from 8 to 16 small children with seats for two, 
should be 40 ft. long by 30 wide. The teacher's platform occupies the north 
end of the room, towards which all the scholars face when in their seats. 
Each scholar is provided with a seat and desk, (each 2 ft. by 14 inches,) the 
front of one desk constituting the back of the seat beyond. The top of the 
desk is level, with a box and lid for books, &c. The aisles on each side of the 
room, are 2 feet wide, and those between each range of seats and desk is 18 
inches. A place for recitation 8 feet wide extends across the whole width of 
the room, in the rear, with movable blackboards. The room can be warmed 
by stove, placed as in the cut referred to, or by air heated by furnace or stove 
in the basement. The room is ventilated by openings in the ceiling. A 
thermometer, library, museum, &c, are to be furnished. 

In the " Plan for a village School-house,'''' the school-room is 48 ft. long by 
35 wide, to accommodate eighty scholars with separate seats. The details 
of the arrangements are nearly the same as were at that date recommended 
for schools on the Lancasterian plan, and as are now recommended by the 
British and Foreign School Society — except that the floor of the room is 
level, and the seats are provided with backs. In the explanations accompany- 
ing the plan, the Directors recommend, that in villages and populous neigh- 
borhoods, the children be classified according to age and attainment into s 
series of schools, and that appropriate rooms for each school be provided. 

Plan recommended by Horace Mann. 

In 1838, Mr. Mann submitted a Report on School-houses, supplementary to 
his " First Annual Report as Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Edu- 
cation," which discusses the whole subject of school architecture with great 
fulness and ability. This document may be found entire in the Massachu- 
setts Common School Journal, Vol 1., and nearly so, in the Connecticut 
Common School Journal, Vol. 1., and the New York District School Journal, 
Vol. 3. It fixed public attention on the defects of these edifices, and has led 
to extensive improvement all over that Commonwealth. During the five 
years immediately following its publication, over $516,000 were expended in 
the construction of 405 new houses, including land, fixtures, &c, and over 
$118,000, in the substantial repairs of 429 more. The larger portion of the 
first sum has been expended in the cities and large villages in the eastern part 
of the state, where may now be seen specimens of the best school-houses, and 
the best schools, in our country. The following plan embodies substan- 
tially the views submitted by Mr. Mann, in his Report. 

* This Essay of Dr. Alcott was the pioneer publication on this subject. It was fol- 
lowed in 1S33 by a " Report on School-houses" prepared by the Rev. G. B. Perry, and 
published by the Essex County Teacher's Association. This last is a searching and: 
vigorous exposition of the evils resulting from the defective construction, and arrange 
ments of school-houses, as they were at that date almost universally found'. 



PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE BY MR. MANN. 



65 





* 



A. Represents the teacher's desk. B B. Teacher's platform, from 1 to 2 ft. in height. 
C. Step for ascending the platform. L L. Cases for books, apparatus, cabinet, &c. 
H. Pupils' single desks, 2 ft. by 18 inches. M. Pupils' seat, 1 ft. by 20 inches. 7. Aisles, 
1 ft. 6 inches in width. D. Place for stove, if one be used. E. Room for recitation, for 
retiring in case of sudden indisposition, for interview with parents, when necessary, &c. 
It may also be used for the library, &c. F F F F F. Doors into the boys' and girls' 
entries — from the entries into the school-room, and from the school- room into the recita- 
tion room. G G G G. Windows. The windows on the sides are not lettered. 

For section of seat and desk constructed after Mr. Mann's 
plan, see p. 47. To avoid the necessity of fitting up the 
same school-room for old and young, and the inefficiency of 
such country schools as we now have, Mr. Mann proposed 
in this Report a union, for instance of four districts which 
did not cover more than four miles square, and the erection 
of four primary school-houses, (a a a a) for the younger chil- 
dren of each district, to be taught by female teachers, and 
one central or high school, (A) for the older children of the 
four districts, taught by a well qualified male teacher. This 
plan is recommended for its wise use of the means of She 
districts, and the efficiency of the instruction given, 

5 




66 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plans, &c, recommended by George B, Emerson. 

The ^School and Schoolmaster,"* contains a very valuable chapter on 
school-houses, by Mr. Emerson, the President of the American Institute of 
Instruction, illustrated by drawings, which, with the permission of the authors' 
and publishers are introduced here. The whole chapter, as the production 
of one of the most eminent teachers and writers on education of the age, 
should be studied by every one who would become thoroughly acquainted with 
he subject. Most of his valuable suggestions are subjoined. 

Situation. -j-So much do the future health, vigor, taste, and moral principles 
f the pupil depend upon the position, arrangement, and construction of the 
school-house, that everything about it is important^} When the most desira- 
ble situation can be selected, and the laws of health and the dictates of taste 
may be consulted, it should be placed on firm ground, on the southern declivi- 
ty of a gently sloping hill, open to the southwest, from which quarter comes 
the pleasantest winds in summer, and protected on the northeast by the top of 
the hill or by a thick wood. From the road it should be remote enough to 
escape the noise, and dust, and danger, and yet near enough to be easily 
accessible by a path or walk, always dry. About it should be ample space, 
a part open for a play-ground, a part to be laid out in plots for flowers and 
shrubs, with winding alleys for walks. Damp places, in the vicinity of stag- 
nant pools or unwholesome marshes, and bleak hilltops or dusty plains, should 
be carefully avoided. Tall trees should partially shade the grounds, not in 
stiff rows or heavy clumps, but scattered irregularly as if by the hand of Na- 
ture. Our native forests present such a choice of beautiful trees, that the 
grounds must be very extensive to afford room for even a single fine speci- 
men of each; yet this should, if possible, be done, for children ought early to 
become familiar with the names, appearance, and properties of these noblest 
of inanimate things. The border of a natural wood may often be chosen for 
the site of a school ; but if it is to be thinned out, or if trees are to be planted, 
and, from limited space, a selection is to be made, the kingly, magnificent 
oaks, the stately hickories, the spreading beech for its deep mass of shade, 
the maples for their rich and abundant foliage, the majestic elm, the useful 
ash, the soft and graceful birches, and the towering, columnar sycamore, 
claim precedence. Next may come the picturesque locusts, with their hang- 
ing, fragrant flowers ; the tulip-tree ; the hemlock, best of evergreens ; the 
celtis, or sweet gum ; the nyssa, or tupelo, with horizontal branches and pol- 
ished leaves ; the walnut and butternut, the native poplar, and the aspen. 

Of extremely beautiful American shrubs, the number is so great that I have 
no room for a list. What place intended to form the taste of the young, 
should be without the kalmias, rhododendrons, cornels, roses, viburnums, 
magnolias, clethras, honeysuckles, and spireeas 1 And whoever goes into the 
woods to gather these, will find a multitude of others which he will hardly 
consent to leave behind. The hilltop should be planted with evergreens, 
forming, at all seasons, a barrier against the winds from the north and east. 

Of the flower plots, little need be said. They must be left to the taste of 
the teacher, and of cultivated persons in the district. I can only recommend 
our wild American plants, and again remind the reader, that there is hardly a 

* The " School and Schoolmaster," a Manual for the use of Teachers, Employers, 
Trustees, Inspectors, &c, &c, of Common Schools. Part 1. By Alonzo Potter, D. D. 
Part II. By George B. Emerson, pp.552. Harper & Brothers, 82 Cliff street, New 
York. Price, $1. 

This excellent treatise, the most valuable contribution yet made to the educational lit- 
«rature of our country, was prepared and published originally at the expense of James 
Wadsworth, Esq., nf Geneseo, W. Y., in 1842. By him a copy was presented to each of 
the 11,000 school districts of that state. Following this noble example, the Hon. Martin 
Brimmer, the present mayor of the city of Boston, caused to be printed, at his expense, 
such a number of copies as would supply one copy each to all the school districts, and 
one copy each to all the boards of school committee men, in Massachusetts. 

The work should be scattered broadcast through every state in the Union. In large 
orders, or for gratuitous distribution, it can be had of the publishers at a very low rate. 



&%lh£? 




PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOrSE, BY MR. G. B. EMERSON. QQ 

country town in New York or New England, from whose woods and mead- 
ows a, hundred kinds of flowers might not be transplanted, of beauty enough 
to form the chief ornament of a German or English garden, which are now 
neglected .only because they are common and wild. Garden flowers need not 
be excluded ; and if either these or the former are cultivated, the great ob- 
ject, to present something to refine and inform the taste, will be, in some de- 
gree, accomplished. 

If proper inclosed play-grounds are provided, the master may often be pres- 
ent at the sports, and thus become acquainted with the character, of his pu- 
pils. If children are compelled to resort to the highway for their amusements, 
we ought not to wonder^that they should be contaminated by the vices, brawl- 
ings, and profanities, which belong to frequenters of highways. 

Size. — The room should be sufficiently large to allow every pupil, 1. to sit 
comfortably at his desk ; 2. to leave it without disturbing any one else ; 3. to 
see explanations on his lessons, and to recite without being incommoded or 
incommoding others ; 4. to breathe a wholesome atmosphere. 

If the first three objects are fully provided for, the space on the floor will be 
sufficient. But to secure the advantage of an adequate supply of air, the room 
must be not less than 10, and, if possible, 12 or 14, feet high. 

Arrangement. — For the accommodation of 56 scholars, so as to give ample 
room for moving, for recitations, and for air, the dimensions of the house 
should be 38 feet by 25, and 10 feet in height within. This will allow an en- 
try of 14 feet by 7|, lighted by a window, to be furnished with wooden pegs 
for the accommodation of clothes ; a wood-room, 10 feet by 7*, to serve also 
as an entry for girls at recess, or as a recitation room ; a space behind the 
desks 8 feet wide, lor fireplace, passage, and recitations, with permanent 
seats against the wall 10 or 11 inches wide ; a platform, 7 feet wide, for the 
teacher, with the library, blackboards, globes, and other apparatus for teach- 
ing ; the remaining space to bp occupied by the desks and seats of the schol- 
ars. For every additional 8 scholars the room maybe lengthened 2^ feet. 
The desks and seats for scholars should be of different dimensions. A desk 
for two maybe 3h or 4 feet long. If the younger children are placed nearest 
the master's desk, the desks in the front range may be 13 inches wide, the 
two next 14, the two next 15, and the two most remote lb, with the height, 
respectively, of 24, 25, 26, and 27 inches. The seats should vary in like 
manner. Those in the front range should be 10 inches wide, in the two next 
Wk, in the two next 11, in the two last llj or 12 ; and 13.*, 14, 15, and 16 
inches, respectively, high. All edges and corners are to be carefully rounded. 

It is very desirable that the north end of the school-house be occupied by 
the master's desk ; that this end be a dead Wall ; that the front be towards 
the south ; and that the desks be so placed that the pupils, as they sit at them, 
shall look towards the north. The advantages of this arrangement are, 1. 
that the scholars will obtain more correct ideas upon the elements of geo- 
graphy, as all maps suppose the reader to be looking northward ; 2. the 
north wall, having no windows, will exclude the severest cold of winter ; 
3. the scholars will, in this case, look towards a dead wall, and thus avoid 
the great evil of facing a glare of light ; or, if a window or two be allowed in 
the north wall, the light coming from that quarter is less vivid, and, therefore, 
less dangerous, than that which comes from any other ; 4. the door, being 
on the south, will open towards the winds which prevail in summer, and /rem 
the cold winds of winter. 

If, from necessity, the house must front northward, the master's desk 
should be still in the north end of the room, and the scholars, when seated, 
look in that direction. 

The end of the room occupied by the master should be fitted with shelves 
for a library and for philosophical apparatus and collections of natural curios 
ities, such as rocks, minerals, plants, and shells, for globes and for black- 
boards. The books, apparatus, and collections should be concealed and pro- 
tected by doors, which may be made perfectly plain and without panels, so as 
to be painted black and serve as blackboards. They may be conveniently 
divided by pilasters into three portions, the middle one for books, the others 



70 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



for apparatus and collections. On one of the pilasters may be the clock ; on 
the other a barometer and thermometer; on shelves in the corners, the 
globes, and over the library in the center, the study card. One of the pilas- 
ters may form part of the ventilating tube. The master's platform may be 
raised eight inches. For all these purposes, the space in front ot the ranges 
of scholars' desks, should be not less 
than seven or eight feet wide ; ten 
or twelve would be much better. 
The sides and front of this space 
hould be furnished with seats ten 
or eleven inches wide, for recitation. 
By means of a large movable black- 
board, this space may be, in case of 
need, converted into two, so that 
two classes may recite at a time. 
In a school intended to accommo- 
date more than 64 pupils, there 
ought also to be a space for recita- 
tion in the south end of the room, 
separable by movable blackboards 
into two. 

The entry should be lighted by a 
window, and be furnished with 
wooden or iron pins for the accom- 
modation of hats, bonnets, and 
cloaks ; and there should be a wood- 
closet large enough to contain two 
or three cords of wood, which may, 
if it is preferred, be used as a recita- 
tion room. 

By making the ceiling of the entry and wood-closet only seven feet high, 
two commodious rooms for recitation may be formed above them, lighted 
from the window over the front door, and accessible by stairs from within the 
school-room. 

.Warming. — In a suitable position, e £ 

pointed out in the plates, near the door, 
let a common brick fireplace be built. Let 
this be inclosed, on the back and on each 
side, by a casing of brick, leaving, be- 
tween the fireplace and the casing, a space 
of four or five inches, which will be heat- 
ed through the back and jambs. Into this 
space let the air be admitted from beneath 
by a box 24 inches wide and 6 or 8 deep, 
leading from the external atmosphere by 
an opening beneath the front door, or at 
some other convenient place. The brick 
casing should be continued up as high as 
six or eight inches above the top of the 
fireplace, where it may open into the room 
by lateral orifices, to be commanded by 
iron doors, through which the heated air 
will enter the room. If these are lower, 
part of the warm air will find its way into 
the fireplace. The brick chimney should 




Mov-i 



Blackboard. 



i 



Fireplace. 



A. Horizontal section. B. Perpendicular section, c. Brick walls, 4 inches thick. 
d. Air space between the walls, e. Solid fronts of masonry. /. Air box for supply of fresh 
air, extending beneath the floor to the front door. #. Openings on the sides of the fire- 
place, for the heated air to pass into the room. h. Front of the fireplace and mantelpiece. 
i. Iron smoke flue, 8 inches diameter, j, Space between the fireplace and wall, k Par- 
tition wall. I. Floor. 



PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, BV MR. G. B. EMERSON. 



71 



rise at least two or three feet above the hollow back, and may be surmounted 
by a flat iron, soap-stone, or brick top, with an opening for a smoke-pipe, 
which may be thence conducted to any part of the room. The smoke-pipe 
should rise a foot, then pass to one side, and then over a passage, to the oppo- 
site extremity of the room, where it should ascend perpendicularly, and issue 
above the roof. The fireplace should be provided with iron doors, by which 
it may be completely closed. 

The advantages of this double fireplace are, 1. the fire, being made against 
brick, imparts to the air of the apartment none of the deleterious qualities 
which are produced by a common iron stove, but gives the pleasant heat of an 
open fireplace ; 2. none of the heat of the fuel will be lost, as the smoke-pipe 
may be extended far enough to communicate nearly all the heat contained in 
the smoke ; 3. the current of air heated within the hollow back, and constant- 
ly pouring into the room, will diffuse an equable heat throughout every part ; 
4. the pressure of the air of the room will be constantly outward, little cold 
will enter by cracks and windows, and the fireplace will have no tendency to 
smoke ; 5. by means of the iron doors, the fire may be completely controlled, 
increased or diminished at pleasure, with the advantages of an air-tight stove. 
For that purpose, there must be a valve or slide near the bottom of one of the 
doors. 

If, instead of this fireplace, a common stove be adopted, it should be placed 
above the air-passage, which may be commanded by a valve or register in the 
floor, so as to admit or exclude air. 

Ventilation. — A room warmed by such a fireplace as that just described, 
may be easily ventilated. If a current of air is constantly pouring in, a cur- 
rent of the same size will rush out wherever it can find an outlet, and with it 
will carry the impurities wherewith the air of an occupied room is always 
charged. For the first part of the morning, the open fireplace may suffice. 
But this, though a very effectual, is not an economical ventilator ; and when 
the issue through this is closed, 
jome other must be provided. The 
most effective ventilator for throw- 
ing out foul air, is one opening into 
a tube which incloses the smoke- 
flue at the point where it passes 
through the roof. Warm air natu- 
rally rises. If a portion of the 
smoke-flue be inclosed by a tin tube, 
it will warm the air within this tube, 
and give it a tendency to rise. If, 
then, a wooden tube, opening near 
the floor, be made to communicate, 
by its upper extremity, with the tin 
tube, an upward current will take 
place in it, which will always act 
whenever the smoke-flue is ivarm. 

It is better, but not absolutely es- 
sential, that the opening into the C ScaIe 8 feet t0 an inch -' 
wooden tube be near the floor. The Ventilating Apparatus. 
carbonic acid thrown out by the A - A ' r D0X > 1 foot square, or 24 inches by 6, 
lungs rises, with the warm breath, ? overed b 5' th e pilaster, and opening at the floor, 
and the perspirable matter from the VL b »»e_of the pilaster. B. Round iron tube 
Skin, with the warm, invisible va- \ 5 * ln fes m dmmeter, being a continuation of 
\ ii- j. <•,! ' ""^""^ "a, the air box, through the center of which passes 
por, to the top of the room. There C . The smoke flue, 8 inches in diameter. D 
both soon cool, and sink towards Caps to keep out the rain. 
the floor ; and both carbonic air and 

the vapor bearing the perspirable matter are pretty rapidly and equally dif- 
fused through every part of the room. 

Seats and Desks.— Instead of a seat and desk for each pupil, Mr. Emer- 
son recommends that two seats should be contiguous. In his drawings, the? 
desk is perfectly level like a table, and the back to the seat is perpendicular- 




72 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



SCHOOL FOR ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY PUPILS. 




fa, 

* ""1 


X.l \ 


. 








Afc£ 


\_j 



ffloooonsooooo- 

lOOOlMMtDOQ 



© 



Br 



B 



51 feet by 31 feet outside.] [Scale 16 feet to the inch. 

D. Entrance door. E. Entry. F. Fireplace. C. Wool closet. T. Teacher's plat- 
form, a. Apparatus shelves, t. Air tube beneath the floor, d. Doors, g. Globes. I. Li 
brary shelves, m. Master's table and' seat. p. Passages, r. Recitation seats, s. Schol- 
ars' desks and seats, rs. Stairs to recitation rooms in the attic. ?>. Ventilator, w. Win- 
dows, b. Movable' blackboard, as. Air space behind the fireplace. 




21 feet by SS feet outside.] 

D. Entrance door. E. Entry. F. Fireplace. C. Wood closet, or recitation room 
T. Teacher's platform, a. Apparatus shelves, t. Air tube beneath the floor, d. Doors 
p. Globes. I. Library shelves, m. Master's table and seat. p. Passages, r. Recitation 
seats, s. Scholars' desks and seats, v. . Ventilator. W.Windows. 6. Movable black- 
board, a, s. Air space behind the fireplace. 



OCTAGONAL PLAN FOR DISTRICT SCHOOL.HOUSE. 



73 



Plans, &c, of an Octagonal School-house. 
Furnished for the "School and School-master,' 1 '' by Messrs. Town and Davis. 





Fig. 1. 

This design for a school-house intends to exhibit a model of fitness and close 
economy. The principles of fitness are, 1. Ample dimensions, with very 
nearly the least possible length of wall for its Enclosure, the roof being con- 
structed without tie beams, the upper and lower ends of the rafters being: held 
by the wall plates and frame at the foot of the lantern. The ceiling may 
show the timber-work of the roof, or it may be plastered. ?. Light, a uniform 
temperature, and a free ventilation, secured by a lantern light, thus avoiding 
lateral windows (except for air in summer,) and gaining wall-room for black- 
boards, maps, models, and illustrations. Side windows are shown in the 
view, and may be made an addition by those who doubt the efficiency of the 
lantern light. (The lantern is not only best for light, but it is essential for a 
free ventilation.) With such a light, admitted equally to all the desks, there 
will be no inconvenience from shadows. The attention of the scholars will 
not be distracted by occurrences or objects out of doors. There will be less 
expense for broken glass, as the sashes will be removed from ordinary acci- 
dents. The room, according to this plan, is heated by a fire in the center, 
either in a stove or grate, with a pipe going directly through the roof of the 
lantern, and finishing outside in a sheet-iron vase, or other appropriate cap. 
The pipe can be tastefully fashioned, with a hot-air chamber near the floor, so 
as to afford a large radiating surface before the heat is allowed to escape. 
This will secure a uniform temperature in every part of the room, at the same 
time that the inconvenience from a pipe passing directly over the heads of 
children, is avoided. The octagonal shape will admit of any number of seats 
and desks, (according to the size of the room,) arranged parallel with the sides, 
constructed as described in specification, or on such principles as may be pre- 
ferred. The master's seat may be in the center of the room, and the seats be 
eo constructed that the scholars may sit with their backs to the center, by 
which their attention will not be diverted by facing other scholars on the op- 
posite side, and yet so that at times they may all face the master, and the 
whole school be formed into one class. The lobby next to the front door is 
made large, (8 by 20) so that it may serve for a recitation-room. This lobby 



74 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



is to finish eight feet high, 
the inside wall to show like 
a screen, not rising to the 
roof, and the space above 
be open to the school- 
room, and used to put 
away or station school ap- 
paratus. This screen-like 
wall may he hung with /ffj 
Lats and clothes, or the j|$ 
Liangular space next the '' 
window may be inclosed 
for this purpose. The 
face of the octagon oppo- 
site to the porch, has a 
wood-house attached to it, 
serving as a sheltered way 
to a double privy beyond. 
This woodhouse is open 
on two sides, to admit of 
a cross draught of air, 
preventing the possibility 
of a nuisance. Other 
wing-rooms (A A) may be 




Fie. 2. 



attached to the remaining sides of the octagon, if additional conveniences for 
closets, library, or recitation-rooms be desired. 

The mode here suggested, of a lantern in the center of the roof for lighting 
all common school-houses-, is so great a change from common usage in our 
country, that it requires full and clear explanations for its execution, and plain 
and satisfactory reasons for its general adoption, and of its great excellence in 
preference to the common mode. They are as follows, viz. : 

1. A skylight is well known to be far better and stronger than light from 
the sides of the building in cloudy weather, and in morning and evening. The 
difference is of the greatest importance. In short days (the most used for 
schools) it is still more so. 

2. The light is far better for all kinds of study than side light, from its quiet 
uniformity and equal distribution. 

3. For smaller houses, the lantern may be square, a simple form easily 
constructed. The sides, whether square or octagonal, should incline like the 
drawing, but not so much as to allow water condensed on its inside to drop 
off, but run down on the inside to the bottom, which should be so formed as 
to conduct it out by a small aperture at each bottom pane of glass. - 

4. The glass required to light a school-room equally well with side lights 
would be double what would be required here, and the lantern would be se- 
cure from common accidents, by which a great part of the glass is every year 
broken. 

5. The strong propensity which scholars have to look out by a side win- 
dow would be mostly prevented, as the shutters to side apertures would only 
be opened when the warm weather would require it for air, but never in cool 
weather, and therefore no glass would be used. The shutters being made 
very tight, by calking, in winter, would make the school-room much warmer 
than has been common ; and, being so well ventilated, and so high in the cen- 
ter, it would be more healthy. 

6. The stove, furnace, or open grate, being in the center of the room, has 
great advantages, from diffusing the heat to all parts, and equally to all the 
scholars ; it also admits the pipe to go perpendicularly up, without any incon- 
venience, and it greatly facilitates the ventilation, and the retention or escape 
of heat, by means of the sliding cap above. 

Construction. — Foundation of hard stone, laid with mor- 

) tar ; the superstructure framed and covered with 1 \ plank, 

Wwm t tongued, grooved, and put on vertically, with a fillet,, chamfered 



OCTAGONAL PLAN FOR DISTRICT SCHOOL.IIOUSE. 



75 



at the edges, over the joint, as here shown. In our view, a rustic 
character is given to the design by covering the sides with slabs ; the curved 
side out, tongued and grooved, without a fillet over the joint ; or formed of 
logs placed'vertically, and lathed and plastered on the inside. The sides di- 
minish slightly upward. A rustic porch is also shown, the columns of cedar 
boles, with vines trained upon them. The door is battened, with braces upon 
the outside, curved as shown, with a strip around the edge. It is four feet 
wide, seven high, in two folds, one half to be used in inclement weather. 
The cornice projects two feet six inches, better to defend the boarding ; and 
may show the ends of the rafters. Roof covered with tin, slate or shingles. 
Dripping eaves are intended, without gutters. The roof of an octagonal 
building of ordinary dimensions may with ease and perfect safety be con- 
structed without tie beams or a garret floor (which is, in all cases of school- 
houses, waste room, very much increasing the exposure to fire, as well as 
the expense.) The wall-plates, in this case, become ties, and must be well 
secured, so as to form one connected hoop, capable of counteracting the pres- 
sure outward of the angular rafters. The sides of the roof will abut at top 
against a similar timber octagonal frame, immediately at the foot of the lan- 
tern cupola. This frame must be sufficient to resist the pressure inward of 
the roof (which is greater or less, as the roof is more or less inclined in its 
pitch,) in the same manner as the tie-plates must resist the pressure outward. 
This security is given in an easy and cheap manner ; and may be given en- 
tirely by the roof boarding, if it is properly nailed to the angular rafters, and 
runs horizontally round the roof. By this kind of roof, great additional height 
is given to the room by camp-ceiling ; that is, by planing the rafters and roof- 
boards, or by lathing and plastering on a thin half-inch board ceiling, immedi- 
ately on the underside of the rafters, as may be most economically perform- 
ed. This extra height in the center will admit of low side-walls, from seven 
to ten feet in the clear, according to the size and importance of the buildings 
and, at the same time, by the most simple 
principle of philosophy, conduct the heated 
foul air up to the central aperture, which 
should be left open quite round the pipe of the 
stove, or open grate standing in the center of 
the room. This aperture and cap, with the 
ventilator, is shown by the figure adjoining, 
which is to a scale of half an inch to a foot. 
The ventilator is drawn raised, and the dot- 
ted lines show it let down upon the roof. It 
may be of any required size, say two feet 

ide and twelve inches high, sliding up and 

vn between the stovepipe and an outward 
■., se, forming a cap to exclude water. This 
>ip maybe pushed up or let down by a rod 
amxed to the under edge, and lying against 
the smokepipe. 

In the design given, the side-walls are ten 
feet high, and the lantern fifteen feet above 
the floor ; eight feet in diameter, four feet 

high. The sashes may open for additional ventilation, if required, by turning 
on lateral pivots, regulated by cords attached to the edges above. The 
breadth of each desk is seventeen inches, with a shelf beneath for books, and 
an opening in the back to receive a slate. The highest desks are twenty- 
seven inches, inclined to thirty, and the front forms the back of the seat be- 
fore it. The seat is ten to twelve inches wide, fifteen high, and each pupil is 
allowed a space of two feet, side to side. 

For the sake of variety, we have given a design in the pointed style, revised 

from a sketch by , an amateur in architecture. Any rectangular plan 

will suit it ; and the principles of light and ventilation dwelt upon in the de- 
scription of the octagon design, may be adapted to this. The principal light 



5 



J> 




76 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




Fig. 3. 

is from one large mullioned window in the rear end. The side openings are 
for air in summer — not glazed, but closed with tight shutters. The same ven- 
tilating cap is shown, and height is gained in the roof by framing with collar 
^earns set up four or five feet above the eaves. The sides, if not of brick or 
stone, may be boarded vertically, as before described. 




PLAN OF VILLAGE SCHOOL-GROUND BY DR. DICK. 



77 



P:.AN OP SciIOOL-ROOM AND GROUNDS FOR A VjLLAGE SdlOOL. 

The following sketch by Dr. Dick, (author of Mental Illumination), of the 
plan and accommodations of a Village School is copied from the Pennsylvania 
Common School Journal, vol. 1, p. 120. 




A. B — Covered walks for exercise in winter and rainy days. C. D. E. F— 
Plats for flowers, shrubs, evergreens, and a few forest trees. G. H — Circles 
with twelve compartments each, for a different class of plants. I. K — Yards 
divided with a wall, with suitable accommodations for either sex. L— Portion 
of ground, smoothed and graveled for play-ground, with circular swing, &c. 
M— Room, 50 by 30 feet, and 14 feet high. N. N — Class-rooms, 18 by 15, 
S. T.— Closets for apparatus, &e. 



78 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan of District School-Room, recommended By Dr. A. D Lord, 
Columbus, Ohio. 

The following plan and description are copied from the Ohio 
School Journal, Vol. II., edited by Dr. Lord, Superintendent of the 
Common Schools of Columbus, Ohio. 



I 

EZZ 

i 





I 




















































H 






G 











o c 




The building here presented should be 26 by 36 feet on the ground, or, as 
least, 25 by 35 feet inside. The plan is drawn on a scale of ten feet to the inch. 

A C — Entries 8 feet square, one for each sex. 

B— Library and apparatus room, 8 by 9 feet, which may be used for a recita- 
tion room for small sized classes. 

D— Teacher's platform, behind which, on the wall, should be a blackboard 12 
feet long by 5 feet wide. 

E E E E— Recitation seats, those on the sides placed against the wall, those 
in front of the platform haying backs and being moyable. 

F F F— Free space, at least two feet wide, next the wall on three sides of the 
room. 

G— Desk, for two pupils, four feet long by 18 inches wide. 

H — Seat, " " do . " " 13 " " 

I— Centre aisle two feet wide ; the aisles on either side of this should be from 
18 to 24 inches wide. 

The area on either side and in front of the Teacher's platform, is intended 
tor reading and spelling classes, and any other class exercises in which the 
pupils stand ; and the space next the wali may be used to arrange the greater 
part ot the school as one class in any general' exercises requiring it. 

Four windows are represented on each side of the house, and two on the end 
opposite the Teacher's stand. The door to the Library-room opens from one 
oi the entries, and the room is lighted by a large window in the front end of the 
house. 



PLANS FOR SCHOOLS OF DIFFERENT GRADES. 79 

Pian, &c, of School-rooms for Schools of different grades and 

DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OF INSTRUCTION. 

The plans and remarks for arranging school-rooms thus far, are more par- 
ticularly applicable to comparatively small, or country schools, where the in- 
struction and government is conducted by one teacher, with at most but one 
assistant. A few remarks explanatory of the terms used by writers on edu- 
cation, when speaking of systems of organization and instruction, may be 
useful to a full comprehension of the principles of arrangement embraced in 
the plans which follow. 

1. The individual method is the practice on the part of the teacher, of calling 
up each scholar by himself for recitation, or giving instruction to each scholar 
in his seat, or calling up classes and hearing each scholar individually, which 
is practically the same-thing. This method will answer a valuable end in a 
very small school, and must be introduced to some extent in our small country 
districts where there are children of every age, and in a great variety of 
studies, and of different degrees of proficiency in each study. It prevails, 
however, altogether too generally, even in larger districts which admit of a 
classification of children into schools of different grades, and of the children 
in, each grade of schools. This classification is the first great step towards 
school improvement. 

2. In the simultaneous method, the whole school, together, or in succes- 
sive classes carefully arranged according to their intellectual proficiency, is 
instructed directly by the teacher. Questions and explanations are addressed 
to the whole school, or the whole class, as the case may be, and answers are 
given by all together, or by some one pointed out by the teacher, while all 
must show by some silent sign, there ability to do so. This method keeps 
every mind attentive, gives confidence to the timid, admits of the liveliness 
of oral and interrogative instruction, economizes the time and labor of the 
teacher, and enlists the great principle of sympathy of numbers engaged in 
common pursuit. The extent to which this method can be properly carried, 
will depend not so much op the size of the schools, as on the fact that the 
school is composed of children in the same studies, and of the same proficien- 
cy. This method ought not to exclude entirely individual instruction. 

When the number of children increases beyond that which one teacher can 
conveniently instruct together, or in successive classes, he must adopt the 
monitorial, the mixed, or the F&cher system, for such classes as he cannot 
superintend or teach. 

3. By the monitorial or mutual method, is understood the practice of em- 
ploying the advanced pupils, and many of them very young, to assist in the su- 
pervision and instruction of the school, or of particular classes, as systematized 
by Mr. Lancaster, or Dr. Bell, and as pursued in the schools connected with 
the National, and the British and Foreign School Societies, England. This 
method, in different countries, on its first promulgation, attracted much of 
public favor, on account of its economy, especially in populous districts. 
In England it still receives the sanction of the two great Societies 
named above. In Germany it was never adopted in the public schools. In 
Holland it was tried, and abandoned, but not without modifying very material- 
ly the methods of instruction before pursued, and finally leading to the adoption 
of the mixed method. In the large cities of the United States, it was early 
adopted, but there is hardly a school in the whole country now conducted on 
the pure monitorial or Lancasterian system, although there are many so 
called. As pursued in the excellent schools of the New York Public School 
Society, it is nearly the mixed method as understood and practiced in Hol- 
land, and as recommended by the Committee of Council on Education in 
England. 

With these modifications, and the limitation of the duties of the younger 
monitors to keeping the registers, heading the classes in marching to and 
from their class-rooms, or the playground, taking charge of books, &c, and in 
other matters of order and mechanical arrangements, the monitorial system 
might be advantageously adopted in schools of every grade, and of any sys- 
tem of instruction. 



80 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

4. The mixed method, as the term is generally understood, is a modifica- 
tion of the simultaneous and monitorial system, in which the principal teacher, 
while he has the superintendence at all times of the whole school, and 
gives general instruction at certain hours, and in certain studies, to the whole 
school, as well as to particular classes, employs in the work of class instruc- 
tion, assistants who are better instructed, and, as a general rule, are older than 
those employed as monitors under the Lancasterian system, and are not yet 
qualified to have the whole charge of a school. For example, in Holland, 
" every school produces two classes of assistants, who are most usefully and 
economically employed in aiding him in the management and instruction of 
the school, and may be called pupil teachers and assistant teachers. By 
pupil teacher is meant a young teacher, in the first instance introduced to the 
notice of the master by his good qualities, as one of the best instructed and 
most intelligent of the children ; whose attainments and skill are full of 
promise ; and who, having consented to remain at a low rate of remuneration 
in the 'School, is further rewarded by being enabled to avail himself of the op- 
portunities afforded him for attaining practical skill in the art of teaching, by 
daily practice in the school, and by the gratuitous superintendence of his 
reading and studies by the master, from whom he receives lessons on technical 
subjects of school instruction every evening- He commonly remains in the 
school in the rank of papil teacher from the age of 14 to that of 17, daily im- 
bibing a more intimate acquaintance with school management, and all the 
matter of instruction in elementary schools, and he then proceeds, by attend- 
ance at a Normal school, or by further proficiency attained by his own exer- 
tions, to qualify himself to act as an assistant teacher. The assistant, teacher 
prepared by these preliminary studies in the elementary Normal school com- 
mences his duties at 18 or 20 years of age. 

Assistants thus reared in the atmosphere of schools are exceedingly pre- 
ferable to the best instructed men who are not familiarized by daily habitude 
with the minutest details of school management. Such assistants constantly 
replenish the ranks of the teachers with men, all the hopes of whose youth 
have been directed towards success in the profession of a schoolmaster, and 
whose greatest ambition is to be distinguished by the excellence of their 
schools. 

5. The Fiicher system, as it is termed in Germany where it is. most popu- 
lar, consists in employing separate teachers for separate studies, or as we 
should apply it here, for distinct departments of government, and of instruc- 
tion. This is the principle on which instruction in our colleges and most of 
our higher seminaries is given, and is in reality the mixed method carried to 
its highest perfection. The vital error in our common schools, as they are 
now organized, is the practice of employing one teacher for the government 
and instruction of fifty or sixty children of every age, of both sexes, in a 
great variety of studies, and in different stages of proficiency in each study. 
It is very rare to find a teacher with the varied qualifications, which success 
under these circumstances presupposes, while it is not very difficult to find a 
teacher with talent and experience sufficient to teach some one study, or a 
few cognate branches, as an assistant, acting under the general direction of a 
well qualified principal. 

Any school organization and arrangements would be imperfect which did 
not include the systematic training and instruction of very young children, 
especially in cities and manufacturing villages. Whatever may have been 
done by others at an earlier date, it seems to be generally conceded now, that 
to Mr. Wilderspin belongs the credit of having reduced infant education to 
the science which it now is. It was unfortunate for the improvement of the 
quality of education given in our schools, that the infant school system was 
tried in this country, without a full comprehension of its legitimate principles, 
methods and end, and that the experiment was abandoned so hastily. Its 
partial and temporary success, however, led to the extension and improvement 
of our primary schools, and this circumstance renders the sv«cess of any 
well directed effort for their re-establishment more certain. 



PLANS FOR SCHOOLS ON THE MONITORIAL PLAN. §[ 

Plans, &c, for Schools on the Monitorial or Mutual System. 

The " Manual of the System of Primary Instruction pursued in the Mode! 
Schools of the British and Foreign School Society," published in 1839, con- 
tains the following remarks on the arrangement for schools of mutual in- 
struction connected with that Society. 

The school-room should be a parallelogram, the length about twice the 
breadth. 

The height of the walls should be proportioned to the length of the room, 
and may be varied from 11 to 19 feet. It is recommended that the walls be 
worked fair and lime whitened, in order to give a neat and clean appearance, 
reflect light, and contribute to the preservation of health. As it is of great 
importance to admit as much light as possible into the school, there must be 
a considerable number of windows, each of which should be fixed in a wooden 
frame, and movable upon pins or pivots in the center, so that by drawing the 
upper part into the room, the school may be sufficiently ventilated in hot 
weather — a circumstance of the utmost importance to be attended to, as the 
health of the pupils in a great measure depends upon it. 

The lower parts of the windows should be at least 6 feet from the floor, in 
order that the light may not be inconvenient, and the walls be at liberty for 
the reading lessons, &c, which are to be attached to it ; if piers are required, 
they should be on the outside of the building. 

There should be holes in the roof, or in the wall near it, to let foul air 
escape. This may be effected by a sufficient number of tubes so contrived 
that they can be opened or shut at pleasure, and at the same time fresh air be 
admitted from the outside of the building by tubes communicating with the 
lower part of the room. 

All projections in the walls, as well as pillars to support the roof, ought to 
be avoided; for they interfere with the arrangement of the school, and ob- 
struct the view of the master and of visiters. But if pillars are necessary, 
they should be placed at each end of the desks, but never in the middle of the 
room. 

Roman Cement, cast into flags, and jointed with the same material, forms a 
good flooring ; it is perfectly dry and durable,' and emits but little sound. 

In order that all the children may be completely seen by the master, it is of 
great importance that the floor should be an inclined plane, rising one foot in 
twenty from the master's desk, to the upper end of the room, where the high- 
est or eighth class is situated. 

At the lower end is the platform, elevated in proportion to the length of the 
room from 2 to 3 feet. The length and breadth of the platform must be in 
proportion to the size of the room. 

The center of the platform is the place for the master's desk ; and on each 
side there may be a small desk for the principal monitors. 

The entrance door should be on the side of the platform, in order that visit- 
ers on entering the school, may have a commanding view of all the children 
at once. 

Whatever be the size of the school-room, it may be sufficiently warmed by 
means of one or two stoves placed at the extremities of the apartment. But 
the most uniform and constant temperature is obtained by steam, when con- 
ducted along the lower parts of the room through pipes, or by heated air con- 
veyed into the room through tubes communicating with a stove, which is sur- 
rounded by a close casing of iron, leaving a sufficient space for a current of 
fresh air to be brought in through a tube : this, coming in contact with the 
stove and the outside of the flue or iron chimney which passes through the 
casing, is heated, and may be discharged into the room by means of iron 
pipes. This method has been found to answer extremely well. 

The middle of the room is occupied by the forms and desk, a passage being 
left between the ends of the forms and the wall, 5 or 6 feet broad, where the 
children form semicircles for reading. 

The forms and desks must be fixed firmly in the ground ; the legs or sup- 
ports should be 6 inches broad and 2 inches thick, but cast iron legs are pre- 

6 



g£ SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

ferable, as they support the desk-board with equal firmness, occupy less room, 
and have a neater appearance ; their number of course will be in proportion 
to the length of the forms. A form 20 feet long will require five, and they 
must be so placed, that the supports of the forms may not be immediately 
opposite to those of the desks ; the corners of the desks and forms are to be 
made round, in order that the children may not hurt themselves. 

The general rules for fitting up 
school-rooms are, — 1. One foot for 
the space or passage between a form 
and the next desk. 

2. Three inches for the horizontal 
space between a desk and its form. 

3. Nine inches for the breadth of a 
desk, and six for the breadth of a 
form. 

4. Twenty-eight inches for the 
height of a desk, and sixteen for the 
height of a form. 

5. Eighteen inches in length of the 
desk for every child to occupy while 
seated upon his form. 

6. From five to six feet for the 
passage between the walls and the 
ends of the forms and desks. 

The semi-circles for the reading 
> classes are formed opposite to the 
wall, and are marked by an incision 
in the floor. 

Dimensions of school-rooms for 
300 children, length, 62^ ft., breadth, 
34 feet ; for 200 do. 55 by 28 ; for 
150 do. 52| feet by 25. 




School-room for 56 scholars. 




D 



1 


D 


i 



The following suggestions are abridged from the " General Observations on 
the construction and arrangements of 
school-rooms, See." published by the 
National Society, London. 

The form of the room should be ob- 
long. If the room is built large to ac- 
commodate boys and girls together, it 
may be divided by a frame partition, 
made to slide upon rollers in an iron 
groove. 

The superficial area should include 
7 square feet for each child : hence, 
50 children will require 350 ft ; 80 do. 
560 ft. ; 100 do. 700 ft., &c. 

The desks are generally attached to 
the wall, and consist of a horizontal 
ledge two or three inches wide to re- 
ceive the inkstand, and an inclined 
plane ten inches wide, made to let 
down by hinges and movable brackets. 
The benches or forms are ten inches 
wide, and supported by standards of 
cast iron. 

The benches for the classes in reci- 
tation, are arranged in the floor with- 
out desks. The floor is entirely level. 



□ 



D 



D 



h 



PLANS FOR SCHOOLS ON THE MIXED SVSTEM. 



83 



Plans, &c, for Schools on the Mixed and Packer System. 

The two plans on the preceding page, for schools of 56 children, arranged on 
the monitorial or mutual system, are taken from the " Minutes of the Com- 
mittee of- Council on Education, 1840, relative to Plans of School-houses." 
In each plan, given in the " Minutes," the arrangement of the school-room is 
delineated, 1. according to the system of 'mutual instruction, distinguishing, as 
above, that of the National Society from that of the British and Foreign 
School Society ; and 2. according to the mixed method, in which a modifica- 
tion of the mutual system, through the agency of better instructed and paid 
monitors, or pupil teachers, is employed in combination with the simultaneous 
method. Thus, on the same sheet, with the school-room for 56 children on 
the mutual system, there is also the following plan on the mixed system. 

The school-room is 18 feet _ 
wide by 31 long, the space (20 
feet by 12) occupied by the 
desks and seats being divided 
into two parts, one for boys and 
the other for girls, by a mova- 
ble partition. The desks and 
benches are arranged on a 
series of platforms, rising each 
6 inches above the preceding 
one.- The school, if taught on 
the mixed method recommended 
would be divided into four class- 
es, the boys of the first class 
occupying the first bench on one 
side, and the girls, do. on the 
other, &c, and employing one 
pupil teacher and four monitors. 
The teacher would give general 
instruction from the platform to 
the whole school, and hear any 
class separately, arranged in a 
circle around him. Two other 
classes might be heard in the 
entry, or class rooms attached. 
(The plan in this cut is modified 
slightly from the original inprint 
when it is connected with the dwelling house.) 

The " Minutes" contain four series of plans, each presenting a different 
arrangement. 

In the first series, there are five plans for schools varying from 30 to 56 
scholars, each with the classes arranged and seated as above, and two of them 
presenting additional accommodations for an infant department, one of 20, 
and the other of 30 children. 

In the second series, there is a separate range of desks for each class, with 
five varieties of arrangements, to accommodate 60 to 100 children, with a 
separate room for an infant school in two. In this series preference is ex- 
pressed for the plan copied from the model school of the Normal School of 
Dejon. In this plan, the room is 56 feet by 16, divided into two apartments, 
each 28 by 16, one for 55 boys and the other for 55 girls. Each department 
is divided into three classes, one class occupying a group of desks, rising on 
platforms directly in front of the teacher, and the other two, one on the left, 
and the other on the right, so that they form a sort of amphitheater around the 
level portion of the floor occupied by the teacher. Each class can be taught 
separately, occupying its own group of desks, as arranged around the teacher's 
desk. 

In the third series the accommodations ascend from 144 children, and 150 
infants, to an indefinitely greater number, by a larger or smaller number of 
class-rooms arranged on each side of a central school-hall, which is lighted by 
sky-lights. 




<s4 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



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9 



JSL 



JSL 



The following plan of a building 
exhibits the arrangement of a school 
for three hundred children, including 
one hundred and fifty in an infant 
school. A is a private room or 
study for the principal. B is the 
school hall (54 ft. by 27) for the as- 
semblage of the whole school for 
morning and evening prayers, and 
other general exercises, and for the 
occupancy of the infant school, and 
C the gallery of the latter. I>, T>, 
D, D, are four class-rooms, (each 
19 by 17) each again divided by a 
partition into two, so that both cars 
be superintended by one assistant 
teacher, and one pupil teacher. Each subdivision of class-room will accom- 
modate about 40 scholars each. The boys and the girls under eleven years 
arranged according to attainments, each on separate benches are taught 
together, while those over eleven years are taught separately in class-rooms 
appropriated to each. This arrangement affords greater facilities for giving 
to the instruction of the older children such a particular character as will 
prepare them for the application of their knowledge to the actual duties of 
life. Such knowledge must difFer, in a class of boys, from that given in a 
class of girls. 

In the fourth series, the same principles of arrangements are observed, ex- 
cept that the boys and girls occupy rooms on different floors. 

In all of the plans recommended in the " Minutes," of the Committee, ac- 
commodations are provided for 1. the technical instruction of the children 
in classes carefully arranged according to their intellectual proficiency; 2. for 
the general instruction and exercises of the whole school ; and, 3d, for the 
residence of the teacher. This last feature is common to almost all school 
houses in Europe^ and the use of the same constitutes a part of the teacher's 
compensation. In the larger structures of Prussia and Saxony, there is an 
entire room appropriated to each class. Thus in a school-house for 600 chil- 
dren, at Berlin, there are eight rooms, and in these rooms the children are 
classed according to their ages, capacities and attainments. Eight masters 
are employed, besides auxiliary masters for special purposes ; and two mis- 
.. tresses, for teaching at certain hours sewing and knitting to the girls. 

The " Minutes" contain many valuable suggestions respecting the location, 
ventilation, and warming of school-rooms, similar to what has been already 
printed. The following section exhibits three forms of desks. The stand 
ards are of wrought or cast iron. 





Desk with Lid. 



Simple Desk, 



Desk with Shelf. 



PLAN FOR INFANT SCHOOL-HOUSE AND GROUNDS.' 



85 



Flan, &c, of School-room and Grounds for an Infant School. 

The following plan and explanations are condensed from a valuable manu- 
al for teachers in infant and primary schools, entitled " Infant Education," 
one of Chambers' Educational Course, published at Edinburgh, in 1840. It 
is nearly similar to the plan recommended by Mr. Wilderspin in his " Infant 
School System," and his " Education for the Young," and by Mr. Stow, -in 
the " Manual on the Training System for Infant and Juvenile Schools." 




Play Ground— 80 ft. by 60. 



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Flower Border. 



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86 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The house should stand in a dry and airy situation, large enough to allow 
a spacious play ground. No pains should be spared on this principal and par- 
amount department of a proper infant school. The more extensive the 
ground may be, the better ; but the smallest size for 200 children ought to be 
100 feet in length, by at least 60 in breadth. It should be walled round, not 
so much to prevent the children from straying, as to exclude intruders upon 
them, while at play : for this purpose, a wall or close paling, not lower than 
six feet high, will be found sufficient. With the exception of a flower border, 
from four to six feet broad all round, lay the whole ground, after leveling and 
draining it thoroughly, with small binding gravel, which must be always kept 
in repair, and well swept of loose stones. Watch the gravel, and prevent the 
children making holes in it to form pools in wet weather; dress the flower 
border, and keep it always neat ; stock it well with flowers and shrubs, and 
make it as gay and beautiful as possible. Train on the walls cherry and other 
fruit trees and currant bushes ; place some ornaments and tasteful decora- 
tions in different parts of the border — as a honeysuckle bower, &c, and sepa- 
rate the dressed ground from the graveled area by a border of strawberry 
plants, which may be protected from the feet of the children by a skirting of 
wood on the outside, three inches high, and painted green, all round the 
ground. Something even approaching to elegance in the dressing and decking 
of the playground, will afford a lesson which may contribute to refinement 
and comfort for life. It will lead not only to clean and comfortable dwellings, 
but to a taste for decoration and beauty, which will tend mainly to expel 
coarseness, discomfort, dirt, and vice, from the economy of the humbler 
classes. 

For the excellent and safe exercise afforded by the Rotary Swing, erect, at 
the distance of thirty feet from each other, two posts or masts, from sixteen 
to eighteen feet high above the ground ; nine inches diameter at the foot, di- 
minishing to seven and a 
half at top ; of good well- 
seasoned, hard timber; 
charred with fire, about 
three feet under ground, 
fixed in sleepers, and 
bound at top with a strong 
iron hoop. In the mid- 
dle of the top of the post 
is sunk perpendicularly 
a cylindrical hole, ten 
inches deep, and two 
inches in diameter, made 
strong by an iron ring 
two inches broad within 
the top, and by a piece of 
iron an inch thick to fill 
up the bottom, tightly 
fixed in. A strong pivot 
of iron, of diameter to 
turn easily in the socket 
described, but with as 
little lateral play as pos- 
sible, is placed vertically 
in the hole, its upper end 
standing 4 inches above 
it. On this pivot, as an 
axle, and close to the 
top of the post, but so as 
to turn easily, is fixed a 
wheel of iron, twenty- 
four inches diameter, 
strengthened by four 




Rotary Swing. 



PLAN FOR INFANT SCHOOL-HOUSE AND GROUNDS. gf 

spokes, something like a common roasting-jack wheel, but a little larger. The 
rim should be flat, two inches broad, and half an inch thick. In this rim are 
six holes.or eyes, in which rivet six strong iron hooks, made to turn in the 
holes, to prevent the rope from twisting. To these hooks are fixed six well- 
chosen ropes, an inch diameter, and each reaching down to within two feet of 
the ground, having half-a-dozen knots, or small wooden balls, fixed with nails, 
a foot from each other, beginning at the lower extremity, and ascending to 
six feet from the ground. A tin cap, like a lamp cover, is placed on the top 
of the whole machine, fixed to the prolongation of the pivot, and a little larger 
than the wheel, to protect it from wet. To this, or to the wheel itself, a few 
waggoners' bells appended, would have a cheerful effect on the children. 
The operation of this swing must, from the annexed cut, be obvious. Four, 
or even six children, lay hold of a rope each, as high as they can reach, and, 
starting at the same instant, run a few steps in the circle, then suspend them- 
selves by thejr hands, drop their feet and run again when fresh impulse is 
wanted ; again swing round, and so on. A child of three or four years old, 
will often fly several times round the circle without touching the ground. 
There is not a muscle in the body which is not thus exercised ; and to render 
the exercise equal to both halves of the body, it is important that, after sever- 
al rounds in one direction, the party should stop, change the hands, and go 
round in the opposite direction. To prevent fatigue, and to equalize the ex- 
ercise among the pupils, the rule should be, that each six pupils should have 
thirty or forty rounds, and resign the ropes to six more, who have counted 
the rotations. 

Toys being discarded as of no use, or real pleasure, the only ■plaything of 
the playground consists of bricks for building, made of wood, four inches by 
two and one and a-half. Some hundreds of these, very equally made, should 
be kept in a large box in a corner of the ground, as the quieter children delight 
to build houses and castles with them ; the condition, however, always to be, 
that they shall correctly and conscientiously replace in the box the full com- 
plement or tale of bricks they take out ; in which rule, too, there is more than 
one lesson. 

In a corner of the playground, concealed by shrubbery, are two water clos- 
ets for the children, with six or eight seats in each ; that for the boys is sepa- 
rate from, and entered by, a different passage from that for the girls. Sup- 
ply the closets well with water, which, from a cistern at the upper end, shall 
run along with a slope under all the seats, into a sewer, or a pit in the ground. 
See that the closets are in no way misused, or abused. The eye of the teach- 
er and mistress should often be here, for the sake both of cleanliness and 
delicacy. Mr. Wilderspin recommends the closets being built adjoining the 
small class-room, with small apertures for the teacher's eye in the class-room 
wall, covered with a spring lid, and commanding the range of the place. 
There is nothing in which children, especially in the humbler ranks, require 
more training. 




3 £ 



3 Z 



The annexed cut r— — , i -~*°~™' P 
represents an infant 
school-room, modi- 
fied in a few unim- 
portant particulars, 
from the ground plan 
recommended by 
Mr. Wilderspin in 
his " Early Educa- 
tion" published in 
1840. The original 
plan embraces a 
dwelling for the 

teacher's family, and two school-rooms, one for the boys and the other for the 
girls, each school having a gallery, class-room, and playground. The school- 
room is about 60 feet long by 38 wide, and the class-rooms each 13 ft. by 10. 
D. Desks and Seats. G. Gallery, capable of accommodating 100 children. 



3 



88 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




The chief requisites in an infant-school play-ground are the following : 
A Climbing Stand ; a Horizontal Bar; Parallel Bars ; Wooden Swings; a 
Double Inclined Plane. 

The Climbing Stand consists essentially 
of a frame-work of poles, which support ropes 
for climbing- One of the most simple and 
economical is made of two ordinary scaffold 
poles, planed smooth and painted, which sup- 
port a transverse beam having books, to 
which the ropes are attached. 

The dimensions may be as follows: Length 
of perpendicular poles, 15 feet, of which 4 
feet are sunk in the ground ; circumference 
of poles at the surface of the ground, 14 
inches ; length of transverse beam at top, 9 
feet. To this beam are attached, by screw- 
ing in, two iron hooks,' which support the 
ropes; these are \h inches in diameter, to 
afford a firm grasp to the hand. In order 
that the ropes may not wear through where attached to the hooks, they are 
spliced round an iron ring, which is grooved on the outer surface to give a 
firmer hold to the rope. Both the ropes should he attached to the bottom of 
the poles so as to hang loosely : if not fastened at the bottom, the children 
use them as swings while clinging to them, and are apt to injure themselves 
by falling, or others by coming violently in contact with them. 

No apparatus is more advantageous : it is economical in its erection, and 
not liable to get out of order ; it affords exercise to a number of children at 
the same time, a succession being constantly engaged in climbing and de- 
scending the ropes and poles ; the muscular exertion is not violent, but 
decidedly beneficial, expanding the chest, and giving power and freedom of 
motion to the arms. This exercise is also quite free from danger, the chil- 
dren never advancing higher up the ropes than they feel themselves secure. 
During the seven years the Home and Colonial Infant-school has been 
established, 200 children have been the average attendance, but no accidents 
have occurred from the use of the climbing-stand. 

The Horizontal Bar consists of a wooden bar formed of beech, red deal, 
or some other tough wood not apt to splinter or warp, about three inches in 
diameter, and usually six feet long, turned or planed round and smooth, in 
order that the hands may not be blistered by the friction. 

Every play-ground should possess two or three of these useful additions ; 
one 6 feet from the ground, another 5 feet, and a third 4 feet high, — each one 
being supported and fixed firmly by a post at both ends. Or they may be 
arranged so that four posts will support the three bars. The exercises per- 
formed on the horizontal bars consist in the child remaining suspended by 
the arms and hands ; in drawing the body up so as to look over the bar sev- 
eral times in succession ; in traversing from one end of the bar to the other 
(suspended by the hands,) both backwards and forwards ; in swinging the 
body whilst suspended from the bar. 



=sn 



PLAY-GROUND OF INFANT-SCHOOL. 



89 



The Parallel Bar consists of two bars 
placed parallel with one another, each being 
from 6 -to 8 feet long, 4 inches deep by 2 
inches wide, with the corners rounded off. 
The posts that support these bars in their po- 
sition should be 18 inches apart. The bars 
should project four inches beyond the post. 
Two sets of parallel bars are advantageous, one being 2 feet 9 inches high 
for the younger children, the other 4 feet high for the elder. 

The exercises on these bars consist in supporting the body on the arms, 
one hand resting on each bar, and by moving each hand alternately, proceed- 
ing forwards and backwards along the bars ; in swinging the body between 
the arms ; and in springing over the bar on each side, both backwards and 
forwards. 

The Wooden Springs afford a kind of exercise extremely popular with 
the younger children, who are not sufficiently active to take part in the other 
exercises. Each swing consists of two distinct parts : 1. A piece of 2-inch 
deal, 1 foot wide and 3 feet long, one end of which is sunk firmly in the 
ground, the other projecting 18 inches above the surface. At each edge of 
this piece is screwed on an iron plate, with an eye to receive the iron pivot 
on which the upper piece works. The upper, or horizontal piece, is made of 
2-inch plank, 1 foot wide and 12 feet long. At each end of this piece three 
handles, formed of lg-inch deal, are strongly mortised in, 1 foot apart, thus 
forming seats for three children at each end. Between the handles the 
plank should be rounded at the edges, so as to form an easy seat. At the 
under surface of each end a small block of wood is fixed, to prevent the 
plank wearing by striking the ground. 

The above directions should be adhered to. If the support be made lower, 
the motion of the swing is much lessened ; if the plank be made shorter, or 
the support higher, the swing approaches too nearly to the perpendicular, 
and serious accidents may ensue from the children being thrown violently 
from the seats. The whole should be made as stout as recommended, other- 
wise it is apt to break from the violent action. 




The Double Inclined Plane is adapted more especially for the younger chil- 
dren. It consists merely of a support of two-inch deal, 1 foot wide, and pro- 
jecting 3 feet from the ground. On this is laid the ends of two planks, each 
12 feet long, 1 foot wide, and 1J inch in thickness. On the upper surface of 
each plank may be nailed, at intervals of eight or ten inches, small cross- 
pieces, to prevent the feet slipping. 




The use of the inclined plane is, that by ascending and descending it, chil- 
dren acquire a facility in balancing themselves. The exercise is beneficial, 
as it calls into action the muscles of the legs and even of the body. It also 
furnishes an excellent situation to jump from, as the children can themselves 
vary the height of the leap at pleasure. 

The general use of all these various exercises is, that the different muscles 
of the body may be strengthened, and the children thus fitted for a future life 
of labor, and better prepared to escape in case of accidents. 



90 school architecture. 

2. Plans and descriptions of School-houses recently 

ERECTED. 

The following school-houses are selected for representation and descrip- 
tion, not because they are superior to all others, or are unexceptionable in 
every respect, but because the plans could be conveniently obtained, and in 
them all, the great principles of school-architecture are observed. 

Plans, &c, of School-house, District No. 6, Windsor, Ct. 




The building stands 60 ft. from the highway, near the center of an ele- 
vated lot which slopes a little to the south and east. Much the larger por- 
tion of the lot is in front, affording a pleasant play ground, whde in the rear 
there is a woodshed, and other appropriate buildings, with a separate yard 
for boys and girls. The walls are of brick, and are hollow, so as to save 
expense in securing the antaes or pilasters, and to prevent dampness. 
This building is 33 ft. 6 inches long, 21 ft. 8 inches wide, and 18 ft. 9 
inches high from the ground to the eaves, including 2 ft. base or under- 
pinning. 

The entries A A, one for boys and the other for girls, are in the rear ol 
the building, through the woodshed, which, with the yard, is also divided by 
a partition. Each entry is 7 ft. 3 inches, by 9 ft. 3 inches, and is supplied 
with a scraper and mat for the feet, and shelves and hooks for outer gar- 
ments. 

The school-room is 24 ft. 5 inches long, by 19 ft. 4 inches wide, and 15 
ft. 6 inches high in the clear, allowing an area of 472 ft. including the re- 
cess for the teacher's platform, and an allowance of 200 cubic feet of air to 
a school of 36. 

The teacher's platform B, is 5 ft. 2 inches wide, by 6 ft. deep, including 
3 ft. of recess, and 9 inches high. On it stands a table, the legs of which 
are set into the floor, so as to be firm, and at the same time movable, in 
case the platform is needed for declamation, or other exercises of th& 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE, WINDSOR. 



91 



scholars. Back of the teacher is a range of shelves b, already supplied with a 
library of near 400 volumes, and a globe, outline maps, and other apparatus. 
On the top of the case is a clock. A blackboard 5 ft. by 4, is suspended 
on weights, and steadied by a groove on each end, so as to admit of being 
raised and lowered by the teacher, directly in front of the book case, and in 
full view of the whole school. At the bottom of the blackboard is a trough to 
receive the chalk and the sponge, or soft cloth. 




The passages D D, are 2 ft. wide, and extend round the room ; E E are 
15 inches, and allow of easy access to the seats and desks on either hand. 
F is 5 ft. 3 inches, and in the center stands an open stove 0, the pipe of 
which goes into one of the flues, a. The temperature is regulated by a ther- 
mometer. 

Each pupil is provided with a desk G, and seat H, the front of the former, 
constituting the back or support of the latter, which slopes 2-J- inches in 16. 
The seat also inclines a little from the 

edge. The seats vary in height, jv""K F?""'T 

from 9£ inches to 17, the youngest ri rT ^_7 Q 

children occupying those nearest the 

platform. The desks are 2 ft. long by 18 inches wide, with a shelf beneath 
for books, and a groove on the back side b, (Fig. 4) to receive a slate, with 
which each desk is furnished by the district. The upper surface of the 
desk, except 3 inches of the most distant portion, slopes 1 inch in a foot, 
and the edge is in the same perpendicular line with the front of the seat 
The level portion of the desk has a groove running along the line of the 





Top of Desk. 



Section of Seat and Desk. 



slope a, (Fig. 4) so as to prevent pencils and pens from rolling off, and an 
opening c, (Fig 8) to receive an inkstand, which is covered by a metal- 
lic lid. 

The windows, I, three on the north and three on the south side, contain 
each 40 panes of 8 by 10 glass, are hung (both upper and lower sash) with 
weights so as to admit of being raised or lowered conveniently. The sills 



92 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

are three feet from the floor. Those on the south side are provided with cur- 
tains and blinds. 

The proper ventilation of the room is provided for by the lowering of the 
upper sash, and by an opening 14 inches by 18, near the ceiling, into a flue, 
(Fig. 2.) a, which leads into the open air. This opening can be enlarged, 
diminished, or entirely closed by a shutter controlled by a cord. 

The sides of the room are ceiled all round with wood as high as the win- 
dow sill, which, as well as the rest of the wood work of the interior, is 
painted to resemble oak. 



The following cuts represent a modification of the Windsor plan, as prepared 




M,Ul ll ii.li,iiiN l m l „., li aii i uii,„i 




|j|"H ' 



Side Elevation. 



for a Primary School in Hartford. The entries (A A) are smaller. The 
teacher's platform is at the end, so as to overlook both yards in the rear. 




Ground Plan. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN HARTFORD. 93 

Plans, &c, op a School-house in Washington District, Hartford, Ct. 

This house is calculated to accommodate at least one hundred children, 
divided into a lower and upper department. For the present, the basement 
is not fitted up, and the upper room is arranged for a school of at least 
sixty pupils, of the ordinary school age, and is recommended for country 
districts of that number of children. 

The building stands back 
24 feet from the highway, 
on a dry, pleasant site, and 
at a distance from any 
other building. The lot 
includes a quarter of an 
acre, and is divided in the 
rear into two yards, one 
for the boys, and the other 
for the girls. 

It is built of brick, with 
some reference to the laws 
of good taste, as well as 
comfort and convenience. 
The wood work of the in- 
terior is painted to resem- 
ble oak. 

The exterior dimensions 
are 40 by 26 feet. The 
recess occupied by the col- 
umns is 4 by 8 feet; entry 
or lobby, (Fig. 2, A) is 8 
ft. wide ; the upper school- 
room is 30 by 25 feet, and 
14 high in the clear; the 
space in front of the desk 

is 8 ft. 6 inches wide ; the side aisles (C C) are 3 feet wide ; the space in 
the rear (F) 4 feet wide, and the aisles between the desks (D D) each 2 
feet 7 inches ; each range of desks is 18 feet long by 4 feet wide. 

The entrance is in front into a lobby (A) one side of which (a) is appropri- 
ated to the girls and the other (b) to the boys, and each side is fitted up with 
shelves, (a a) and hooks for hats, and outer garments. Scrapers, (r r) mats, 
(t t) and a shelf (c) for pail, wash basin, towel, drinking cup, &c, are pro- 
vided for the comfort and convenience of the children, and to enable the 
teacher to enforce habits of neatness, order and propriety. 

There are three windows on the north, and three on the south side, each 
with 32 lights of 12 by 8 inch glass. These windows are inserted nearly 4 
feet from the floor, are hung (both upper and lower sash) with weights, and 
provided with Venetian blinds. 

There is an opening near the floor, and another near the top of the room, 
into a flue (i) which leads into the open air. These openings can be en- 
larged, diminished, or entirely closed, at the discretion of the teacher. The 
windows can also be conveniently lowered or raised, both at the top and the 
bottom. 

The room is warmed by a close wood stove, (S) the pipe from which is 
carried ten feet above the heads of the children into the smoke flue (h). 
The heat is regulated by a thermometer. 

There are three ranges of seats and desks, capable of accommodating, 
when completed, 18 scholars each. In the first range the back seat is 18 
inches high, and the desk, (the front edge) 29 inches from the floor, and the 
front seat 11 inches, and the corresponding desk, 23 inches ; in the second, 
the same proportion is observed, except that the whole range is 1 inch low- 
er, and the third, one inch lower than the second ; i. e. the back seat of 
the third range is 16 inches, and the corresponding desk, 27 inches, and the 




Fie. 1. 



94 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



front seat 9 inches, and the 
desk 21 inches from the floor. 
Each scholar is provided with 
a chair, (Fig. 3) detached 
from the desk behind, and 
fastened to the floor by an iron 
pedestal. Each range of desks 
is divided by a partition ex- 
tending from the floor to four 
inches above the surface of 
the desk. . This partition, to 
which the desks are attached, 
gives great firmness to each, 
and at the same time separates 
the scholars from each other, 
and economizes room. Each 
desk is two feet long, (it 
should be 2 ft. 6 inches) and 
from 13 to 18 inches wide, 
with a shelf beneath for books. The upper surface of the desk, except 
3 inches of the most distant portion, slopes 1 inch in a foot. Along the 
edge of the slope and the level portion, is a groove, to prevent pens and 
pencils from rolling off, and in the level part an opening (b) to receive a 
slate, (and there should have been another (c) for the inkstand, with a butt 
or metallic lid to close over it. Each desk should also have a sponge, pen 
wiper, and pencil holder, (a tin tube,) attached to it.) 





Range of Seats and Desks. 




^F 



To accommodate six of the 
oldest and largest scholars in 
winter, a desk like a table leaf, 
will be attached to the highest 
end of each range (Fig. 2, 4, e 
e e) and to accommodate the , 
same number of the smallest 
in summer, sand desks, (Fig. 
5) can be placed at the lowest 
end (d d). The smaller 
children will ultimately be 
accommodated in the lower 




The platform (B) for the teacher, occupies the space between the doors 
which open into the school-room, and is 9 feet long, 4 feet 6 inches wide, and 
9 inches high. On it is a desk, (Fig. 2) 4 feet long by 2 feet wide, support- 
ed by two (v v) hollow pedestals, which will accommodate the books, &c, 
of the teacher. The lid of the desk is a slope, but can be supported by 
slides in the box of the desk so as to be a level. From the platform the 
teacher can conduct the instruction of his classes, arranged around it, or on 
either side, or in the area, (L) in the rear of the school, and at the same 
time have the rest of the school under his supervision. 

Each desk is furnished with a slate of the best quality, and made strong 
by a band of iron over the corners fastened with screws. Behind the 
teacher, and in full view of the whole school, and accessible to the reciting 
classes, is a blackboard 9 feet long by 4 feet 6 inches wide, with a trough at 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN HARTFORD. 



95 



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the bottom to receive the chalk or crayon, a sponge or soft leather. Over 
the black-board, are the printed and written alphabet, arithmetical and geo 
metrical figures, the pauses, &c, for copying or general exercise. Along 
the edge of the blackboard, the length of an inch, foot, yard, &c, are de- 
signated. Over the teacher's platform, on the ceiling, the cardinal points of 
the compass are to be' painted. In a case (G) 4 feet wide, 15 inches deep, 
and 7 feet high, in the rear of the room, there is a terrestrial and celestial 
globe, an orrery, a set of geometrical solids, a set of alphabetical and draw- 
ing cards, arithmetical blocks, and a numerical frame, a model to illustrate 
cube root, a set of outline maps and historical charts, a movable stand to 
support maps, diagrams, movable blackboards, &c. On the western wall, 
on each side of the window, are the eastern and western hemispheres, each 
six feet in diameter. There are also maps of Connecticut, Massachusetts, 
and the United States, and Catherwood's plan of Jerusalem, together with 
maps illustrative of the history of the bible. An eight-day clock is also 
provided. 

The library case (E) is of the same size as the apparatus closet, and con- 
tains already nearly 400 volumes. 





Fig. 7. 



The movable stand for blackboard (Fig 6) is like a painter's easel. 
u. Pins on which the board rests, c. Hinge or joint to the supporting legs 
which are braced by hook b. 

The primary department may be fitted up with a gallery, (Fig. 7) as is 
recommended by Mr. Wilderspin for infant schools, consisting of a series 
of seats, ascending from the floor. The first or lowest is 8 inches ; each 
ascending, one being one inch higher than the next before it. 



96 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




Fig. 8. 



A cheap movable blackboard was made for the primary department as is 
represented in (Fig. 8,) and a movable bench, (Fig. 9) on which the 




Fig. 9. 

children are separated by a little compartment (A,) for books, which also 
serves as a support for the arms. 

The blackboards are furnished with crayons prepared after directions, 
given by Prof. Turner, of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, as 
follows. 

" Take 5 pounds of Paris White, 1 pound of Wheat Flour, wet with water, 
and knead it well, make it so stiff that it will not stick to the table, but not so 
stiff as to crumble and fall to pieces when it is rolled under the hand. 

To roll out the crayons to the proper size, two boards are needed, one, to 
roll them on ; the other to roll them with. The first should be a smooth pine 
board three feet long and nine inches wide. The other should also be pine, 
a foot long and nine inches wide, having nailed on the under side near each 
edge a slip of wood one third of an inch thick, in order to raise it so much 
above the under board as that the crayon when brought to its proper size, 
may lie between them without being flattened. 

The mass is rolled into a ball and slices are cut from one side of it about 
one third of an inch thick ; these slices are again cut into strips about four 
inches long and one third of an inch wide, and rolled separately between these 
boards until smooth and round. 

Near at hand should be another board 3 feet long and 4 inches wide, across 
which each crayon, as it is made, should be laid, so that the ends may project 
on each side — the crayons should be laid in close contact and straight. When 
the board is filled, the ends should all be trimmed off so as to make the crayons 
as long as the width of the board. It is then laid in the sun, if in hot weather, 
or if in winter, near a stove or fire-place, where the crayons may dry gradu- 
ally, which will require twelve hours. When thoroughly dry they are fit for 
use. 

An experienced hand will make 150 in an hour. We sell them at 50 cents 
for a single hundred — and less by the quantity." 



The Windsor and Washington District school-houses were constructed 
and fitted up in 1839 — 40, mainly after plans furnished by the Secretary of 
the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools of Connecticut, who was 
anxious to have one or two structures to which he could refer when lec- 
turing and writing on the subject, as, in some respects, models of taste, 
comfort, and convenience, for a country school-house. 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plan, &c, of High School, Middletown, Ct, 




The High School building is located on Parsonage street, away from the 
business part of the city. The lot is 227 ft. on the street, by 200 ft. deep, 
and is divided into two equal parts, one of which is appropriated to the boys, 
and the other to the girls. The building stands near the center of the lot, 
east and west, and 12 feet from the street. The entrances are on the sids 
next to the street. 




Fig. 2. Transverse Section. 

A. Basement, 90 ft. by 50, and 9 ft. in the clear. B. Male De» 
partment, 50 ft. by 47, and 12 ft. high in the clear, with two reeitatioa 
rooms 25 ft. by 12. C. Female Department, same dimensions as 
Male Department. D. Attic arched, appropriated for calistkeaic 
exercises. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, MIDDLETOWN. 



99 



R 



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mmom 



[•■•■•I 









•H 9 H»E«>B»H«li»i»§a 




Fig. 3. Male Department. 

_ The exterior dimensions of the building are 72 ft. by 54. It is two stories 
high, with a basement 9 ft. in the clear, and an arched attic, 6 ft. to the 
spring of the arch. The first story is occupied by the male department, 
and the second by the girls' department. The basement will be used as a 
play ground for the boys in wet weather, and the attic is appropriated for 
calisthenic exercises for the girls, and meetings of the whole school. 

The lower school-room is 50 ft. by 47, and 12 ft. high in the clear, with 
two recitation rooms, each 25 ft. by 12. The entrance is from the East, 
near the end, into a lobby (A) 8 ft. wide, and fitted up with scraper, mats, 
hooks, &e. &e. 

The desks are so placed, that the scholars face towards the teacher's 
platform, (D) which is against the northern partition, separating the school- 
room from the entry. The desks are placed in seven ranges, containing 
each 12 desks, each desk accommodating two scholars, and the front of one 
desk constituting the back of the preceding one. The seats and desks are 
painted green. Each range is separated from the other by an aisle 18 inch- 
es wide, and the whole body of desks is surrounded or three sides by an 
open space (C C) 6 feet wide. 

On each side of the teacher's platform (D) there is a platform with an 
open space (B) in front, of 10 ft., of half the elevation, for two assistants. 
In the rear of the platform is a room (E) appropriated to the teacher. 

The recitation rooms are separated from the school-room by a glass par- 
tition. Two sides of each is occupied by blackboards. 

The school-rooms and recitation rooms are ventilated by openings at the 
top and bottom, into eight flues carried up in the wall into the space between 
the areh of the attic and the roof. This space communicates at all times 
with the open air by a grating at either end, (as indicated in Fig. 1 and 2.) 

The school-room is heated by two furnaces in the basement, the hot air 
ascending through the openings (r r) into the lower room, and carried into 
the second story and attic, by conductors (ff.) 

There are six large windows to the school-room, and one to each recita- 
tion room. The windows are protected by Venetian blinds, which are never 
opened. The amount of light is graduated by opening or closing the slats. 

The girls' school-room is on the second floor, and is, in every respect 
?ike the one below. Both rooms are well supplied with blackboards, an 
with, a set of Mitchell's series of Outline Maps, and globes. 



1(J0 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plan and Description of Public School, No. 17, New York. 

The following plans and explanation of a " Public School" and a " Primary 
School" are copied from the " Thirty-ninth Annual Report of the Trustees 
of the Public School Society of New York." The plans after which the 
school-houses of this Society were originally constructed, as well as the 
methods of instruction pursued in their schools, were adopted from those 
recommended by Joseph Lancaster, and the British and Foreign School 
Society. These plans and methods have been from time to time essentially 
modified, until they can no longer be characterized as Lancasterian or Moni- 
torial, but the plans and methods of the Public School Society of New 
York. There are two grades of schools, the higher called the Public 
Schools, and the lower, called the Public Primary Schools. Those schools 
of the primary grade, which are in the buildings appropriated to the higher 
schools, are designated Primary Departments, to distinguish them from the 
Primaries taught in separate buildings. The system of instruction pursued 
in the Primary Departments was originally the Infant School system, and 
still retains many of the methods of that system. The school-rooms were, 
therefore, constructed and furnished in reference to simultaneous exercises 
of the whole school, to oral instruction with visible illustrations, and to 
physical movements of various kinds. 

Public School, No. 17, is in 13th Street, between the 7th and 8th Avenues, 
on the centre of a lot of ground 100 feet front and rear, by 103| feet deep. 
The main building is 42 feet front, and 80 feet deep ; the stair building (in 
the rear,) is 21 by 14 feet. The main building is 49 feet high, from the 
pavement to the eaves. The first story of the front of the main building 
is of brown stone, polished, as is also the bases and caps of the pilasters. 
The walls are all of brick (including the front fences) ; the front being of 
(what are called) Philadelphia pressed bricks ; the front cornice is of wood, 
and painted white. 

The windows of the lower story, contain each 30, and the two upper 
stories each 40 panes of glass, 12 by 10 inches : the sashes are all hung 
with weights and cords, so that they may be raised or lowered at pleasure. 

The rooms are all wainscoted, as high as the window sills : the wain- 
scoting, doors, and desks are all grained in imitation of oak : the doors, 
window casings, and sashes are painted white. The rooms are ventilated 
by means of six blinds, 2 by 3 feet, being placed in the ceiling between the 
timbers, and two or three bricks being left out opposite the blinds, in the out- 
side walls. 

The first story is 11 feet 6 inches high in the clear, and is occupied as a 
Primary Department, for both boys and girls, and contains seats for 150 
children in the Front Room, (marked A on Fig. 1.) and 200 on the Gallery, 
(marked M on Fig. 1) ; making in all 350 seats in this department. 

The second story is occupied as the Girls' department; the room is 15| 
feet high in the clear, and contains seats for 252 scholars. 

The third story is occupied as the Boys 1 department ; the room is 16|- 
feet high in the clear, and contains seats for 252 scholars ; making in all 
854 seats in the building, exclusive of the seats in the recitation rooms. 

The steps in the stair building, by which the scholars enter and retire 
from school, are of blue stone, 3 inches thick by 12 inches wide, and are 
expected to last as long as any part of the building. This method was 
adopted to avoid the necessity of putting in new steps every few years, 
(which has heretofore been necessary where wooden steps have been used,) 
and also to lessen the noise consequent on a great number of children going 
either up or down wooden steps, at the same time ; thus far the experiment 
has succeeded admirably, and is now adopted for both Public and Primary 
Schools* 



NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
Fig 1. Ground plan of Primary Department, yards, &c. 



101 




A. — Primary School room 39 by 38 feet. 
B— Infant do do 39 by 30 feet. 

C — Room for brooms, pails, &c. 
J — Boys' ward-robe, 16V by 8 feet. 
K— Girls' do 12^ by 8 feet. 
M— Gallery, 32 by 11 feet— Seats for 

200 children. 
N, N— Desks, each 16| feet long. 
— Teachers' table. 
L — Main entrance. 
R, R — Entrance to the yard. 
U, U do to Primary department. 

V — Stairs to Girls' and Boys' do. 
S — Scholars' entrance — Boys' do. 
T do do Girls' do. 

Q— Sliding doors— 28 by 9^ feet. 
P, P — Stoves. 

Z, Z — Flues for stove pipes. 
I, I— Play ground, 102 by 26 feet; 



paved with brick. F, F — Privies, 
12 by 8 feet. G, G— Boxes for 
sand— 3 by 2\ feet. 

D, D— Wood-houses— 83 by 2\ feet, and 
6| feet high; the front of which is made 
of hemlock strips, 4 by 2 inches, set 
perpendicularly 2 inches apart, to al 
low a free circulation of air. 

E, E — Roof of wood-houses — project- 
ing 3^ feet beyond the front of the 
houses; forming a shelter for the 
scholars in stormy weather. 

H, H — Gutters of blue stone to con- 
duct the waste water from the wood 
houses and yards to the street. 

X — Court Yard — Q\ wide ; blue stone 
flagging. Y, Y — Stone foundation 
blocks, to which the iron railing in 
front is secured. 



102 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE, 




NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



103 



Plan &c, op Primary School, New York. 

The main building is 25 feet front, by 62f feet deep : the stair building is 
27 feet by 11 feet 8 inches. The main building is placed 6 or 8 feet from 
the line of the street, according to the depth of the lot. The walls above 
the ground are built entirety of brick. The roof is of tin ; and the gutters 
of copper. The lower doors and windows have iron bars inserted, for 
safety, and to admit a free circulation of air in the summer, but are closed 
with sashes in the winter. 

Fig. 1. Ground plan of first story, or play-ground. 

This story is 7^ feet in the clear, with a partition wall through the middle 
to give separate play-grounds for the boys' and girls' schools. This wall is 8 
inches thick ; and about 2\ feet of the upper part is open work for ventilation. 

C, C — Stairways. L, F — Places for pine (kindling) wood — under 
stairs. E. — Sand box for both departments. h, h — Piles of wood about 
4| feet high. I, I — Lines on which the scholars are marshaled, previous 
to entering school. 1, 1, 1 — -Doors. 

Fig. 2 and 3. Ground plan of boys' and girls' department, each 60 by 32. 

D — Teachers' platform and table, (movable rollers.) d, d — Desks for 
scholars — the black dots are iron chairs, a — Cast iron lesson stands — on 
which two lesson boards are hung, to accommodate classes standing on the 
line b, b. H — Class Room, g, g, g — Flues, or chimnies, for stove pipes. 
f, f, f, &c. — Air flues, or recesses for ventilation, extending from the 2d story 
to the garret. C — Stove — the pipes extend from the stove to the front into 
the Sue, and also to the rear. 




104 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




The gallery consists of 7 seats, 
varying in height from 7 to 9 inches, 
each seat 20 feet long, and provided 
with a support for the back. These 
seats will accommodate 200 children. 
The whole is set 2\ feet from the 
wall, and is left open beneath — the 
space being used as a wardrobe for 
the youngest children. 

The youngest class is provided with a desk, having a 
trench (b) painted black to contain a thin layer of sand, in 
which to trace letters, and rude attempts at imitating forms. 
Each child has a slate, and there is an opening in the 
top of the desk (a) to receive it when not in use. 

Since the erection of this school-house some modifica- 
tions have been made in the construction of the desks and 
seats. Instead of the long bench for 10 or 12 pupils, each 
pupil has a chair similar to those represented below. 





The desks are 10^ inches wide; and the uprights, or legs, are cut out 
on the edge towards the chair. The highest desk is 1 foot 7 inches on the 
lowest side ; the lowest 1 foot 5 inches The chairs are 12 and 10 inches. 
The seat of the chair is about 8 inches wide, and is intended to be set so 
that the front of the seat and the edge of 'the top of the desk, shall be perpen- 
dicular, one with the other, so that the scholars may sit erect, and receive 
the benefit of the back of the chair while writing. 

The desks (Fig. 2.) are each for eight scholars and vary in height — the 
highest, which are most distant from the teacher, being on the lower edge 
26 inches f/om the floor, and requiring a seat 17^ inches ; and the lowest 
being nearest the teacher, being 17 inches and requiring a seat 10 inches 
from the floor. Each desk has an appropriate place for an inkstand, books, 
pen, pen-wiper, pencil, and slate for each scholar. The slates are of the best 
quality, bound over the corners with a band of iron made fast to the frame 

The seats are stools, without 
backs — all belonging to one desk, 
being attached to a plank, which can 
be moved, although it is ordinarily 
made fast to the floor. There is 
sufficient space between each stool, 
and between each range of stools and 
the adjoining desk, to allow a scholar 
to leave or take his seat without 
disturbing any other. 

The monitors' seat and desk (F) 
are elevated about five inches above 
the rest, so as to command a view 
of each range of scholars' seats and 
desks. The top of the monitors' 
desk is hung with hinges, and sup- 
ported by a movable brace. 





NEW YORK PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



105 



The attention of the Trustees and especially of a committee having charge 
of this subject, having been recently called to the importance of having some 
support provided for the backs of the older as well as the youuger scholars, 
has resulted in the introduction of MotPs patent revolving cast-iron chair 
into several of the new Primary Schools, and into one of the Public Schools. 



The chairs, except the seat, 
are made of cast iron, and are so 
constructed, that the seat and 
back may be turned round, while 
the bottom being screwed fast 
to the floor, remains stationary. 



The height of thelower partof 
the top of the desk, is just equal 
to the highest part of the back of 
the chair, so as to allow it to 
pass under. 

The front edge of the seat is 
in a perpendicular line with the 
edge of the top of the desk, so 
that the scholar is required to sit 
erect, when engaged in writing 
or studying, and the same time 
that part of bis back which re- 
quires support is fully in contact 
with the chair. 



These chairs are made of four sizes 
as follows — 

No 1 is 10 in. high, and requires a desk 17 in. 
" 2 " 12 " " " " 19i " 

" 3 " 14 " " " " 22 " 

" 4 " 16 " " " " 24 " 

These chairs are considered so ex- 
actly suited to the wants of the chil- 
dren, both as it regards ease in sitting, 
and in maintaining order while taking, 
or leaving their seats, that the Com- 
mittee on Primary Schools have con- 
cluded to recommend them wherever 
new desks are needed. 

J. L. Mott, 264 Water-street, has 
for sale cast iron lesson stands ; and 
cast iron standards or end pieces for 
school desks of four different sizes; 
and school stoves of various patters. 

The chair and standard have been 
recently introduced into many public 
and private schools in the city of New 
York and other places. 




206 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The following remarks are from the " Report of the Primary School 

Committee to the Board of Trustees of the Public School Society of New 

York, on the use of seats without backs : — 

' • s 

" On inquiry of the female teachers, several of the oldest and most expe- 
rienced among them say, that instances of curved spine are often perceived 
among their scholars. Individual members of this Board have noticed simi- 
lar instances ; and it deserves to be mentioned, that a highly respectable and 
intelligent foreign gentleman, who is deeply interested in the cause of educa- 
tion, on a late visit to one of our schools, expressed his surprise on perceiving 
how large a proportion of the girls were round-shouldered and stooping in 
their figure." 

******* 

" 1st. It is a matter of notoriety to the medical profession, that, until 
about thirty or forty years ago, spinal curvatures were very little known. It 
is only since " the schoolmaster has got abroad," — only since so great and 
universal an impulse has been given to education, that these cases have 
become sufficiently numerous to attract the particular attention of medical 
men. There is now to be found a distinct class of practitioners, and of 
machinists, who live and thrive by the treatment of spinal injuries. 

2d. A large proportion of these cases can be distinctly traced to causes 
connected with school education. Among the illiterate in all countries, these 
injuries are scarcely known. They occur most frequently in schools where 
females are much confined to a sitting posture, with but a scanty allowance 
of those robust and active exercises which impart power to the muscular 
system, and invigorate the general health. 

It should be here explained, that the trunk of the body is sustained in its 
erect position, solely by the action of muscles. Young and growing femalea 
who are but feebly endowed with muscular strength, experience such a sense 
of weariness in sitting upright, as to be induced, from necessity, to drop the 
body into a variety of curvatures ; and one particular curve becoming habit- 
ual and long persisted in, finally ends in permanent deformity. The influence 
of exercise in preventing the evil, is precisely that which it has on the arm 
of a blacksmith ; it augments the bulk, and redoubles the power of the mus- 
cles, and gives greater firmness and security to the joints. 

3d. In all large cities there are many children, who, from infancy, are 
strongly predisposed to these affections, owing to a constitutional feebleness 
of muscle, or an unhealthy condition of the bones or joints. These require 
every precaution, during the course of their education, to prevent deformity. 

Supposing- the females attending our schools to be liable to spinal injuries, 
are these injuries owing to the use of seats without backs 1 The answer 
must be, that they are instrumental in causing them, just so far as they place 
the scholar under the necessity of seeking relief in the crooked and unhealthy 
attitudes into which she throws her body. Another question of similar im- 
port, is this : — Would seats with back-supports tend to prevent these injuries? 
A similar answer must be given. Such seats would act as a preventive, just 
in proportion as they removed the temptation and the necessity for indulging 
in injurious flexures of the body. When we see, as we often may, a girl of 
rapid growth, of yielding joints, and of feeble muscles, propping the weight 
of her body on her elbows, or, by way of change, bringing her sides alter- 
nately to rest on the desk before her, can we doubt for a moment, that, with 
a back-support, she would run less risk of injury to her figure 1 And in 
regard to those children, before alluded to, as having a natural predisposition 
to spinal distortions, seats of this kind would be indispensable to their 
safety " 



MOTT'S CAST IRON CHAIR. 



107 



Mott's School Chair and Desk. 
The following minute description of Mott's Patent Revolving Pivot 
Chair, and cast iron Scroll Stanchions for School Desks, is gathered 
from a circular of the patentee : 

The seat of the chair is of wood : all the other parts, of cast iron. The desk 
stanchions are adjusted to the height of the chair — in the following scale, viz : 



No. of the 
Chair. 


Height of 
Chair Seat. 


Height of front 
edge of Desk. 


Width of Desk. 


™,m th fo°r f Si Distance 
scholar; (not between the 
less.) 1 rows of Desks. 


1 

2 
3 
4 


10 Inches. 
12 " 
14 " 
16 " 


17 Inches. 
19 " 
22 " 
24 " 


12 Inches. 
12 " 

14 " 

15 " 


17 Inches. 

18 " 
20 " 
22 « 


20 Inches. 
22 " 

24 " 

25 " 



The first column denotes the number of the dhair, as also the number of the 
desk stanchions. 

Second column, the height of the seat from the floor. 

Third column, the height of the front edge of the desk from the floor. 

Fourth column, the width of the top of the desk. The slope of the desk should 
rise li inch to the foot ; the larger desks having 2j to 3 inches level on top to 
accommodate inkstands. 

Fifth column, the length of desk room required for each scholar. It should 
not be less than here given. 

Sixth column, the distance that should be allowed between the desks, from 
the back of one to the front edge of the other. This space will allow a passage 
between the chair and the next rear desk. The number of scholars at a desk 
need not be limited. 

The position of each chair, when screwed to the floor, should have two-thirds 
of the allotted desk room to the right of its centre, and be so near that the back 
of the chair, in its revolution, will barely clear the desk. By placing the chair 
as described, the body of the child is brought in close proximity to the desk, 
causing the back of the person to rest, at all times, and under all circumstances, 
against the back of the chair. By a happy combination of the chair and the 
height of the desk, the children readily assume a position that is most convenient 
and conducive to their ultimate health, preventing those awkward habits sofre- 
quently acquired at school, and which are always so annoying to teachers. So 
uniform is the effect produced, that the back of the heads of twenty children, 
seated at a desk, will not vary one inch from a straight line. A distinguished 
literary lady, visiting one of the New York Public Schools, observing this uni- 
formity in the position of the children when seated, inquired of the female 
teacher, how she managed to keep them so. She answered, she did not know; 
she believed the one adopted it because the other did. The fact is, it was owing 
to the chair and desk. 

The chairs are made lower than usual, so that the feet of the scholar may 
rest upon the floor, and the muscles of the thigh do not tire by pressing hard 
upon the front edge of the seat. Fashion has had more influence in fixing the 
height of our chairs, than ease or convenience. The ladies are the best judges 
of such matters. When they order a sewing or a rocking chair, the direction is, 
make it low. 

The following testimony was furnished by an eminent physician of New 
York, who has taken a lively interest in the progress of schools. He says the 
advantages of this chair are : — 

1st. That it gives an easy and firm support to the muscles of the back ; so 
uniform and agreeable that the posture of sitting never becomes painful, even 
though continued longer than is ever required in school. 

2d. It thus effectually prevents that unequal and irregular action of the mus- 
cles on either side of the spine,. which, in delicate children, is likely to result 
from the habit of sitting upon a bench or stool without a back, and which has 
often produced in such children a curvature of the spine, and other deformities. 

3d. Its rotary or revolving motion affords opportunities for that kind and de- 



1 08 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

gree of exercise, even in the sitting posture, which is a salutary part of phys- 
ical education. 

4th. Its permanent fixedness on the floor upon a pedestal, secures its proper 
proximity to the desk in front, and guards against the leaning or reclining po- 
sition which results from a movable bench, stool or chair, which may be nearer 
to the desk at one time than at another, and which has been found "wearisome 
to children, and otherwise detrimental to both their comfort and health. 

5th. It admits of being adapted to the size and height of children, the seat 
being higher or lower, and its relation to the desk in front, varied as the chil- 
dren are larger or smaller. In every school there may be sufficient diversity 
in these particulars to enable the judicious teacher to select seats for every 
scholar which shall be found convenient and comfortable, changing them as 
often as circumstances may require. 

Simple as the chair may appear, it is the result of many experiments and 
much time. It was first thought that an ordinary rotary chair would answer 
the purpose ; but it was found that on account of its back, the chair, when al- 
lowed to revolve, could not be placed sufficiently near to the desk, to afford the 
desired support to the back of the scholar. To ascertain the proper height of 
the chair, a large number of children were measured ; to arrive at that of the 
desk, the length of arm from elbow to shoulder was taken, as it was thought 
that this might be a guide. The length differing to the extent of an inch and a 
half in children of the same stature, resort was had, in connection therewith, to 
the distance of sight. Upon experiment, it was found that when the desks were 
low, the back of the child was too much curved ; when high, the body was too 
erect — a medium height was selected. 

The chief peculiarity in the desk is, that in the place of straight wooden 
legs, there are substituted curved cast iron stanchions ; the obvious advantages 
of which are, that they occasion no interference with the movements of the 
scholar seated opposite or near to them. 

Two stanchions are necessary for a single desk. Two, also, will support a 
desk of sufficient length to accommodate three scholars ; three, to accommo- 
date six scholars; four, nine scholars ; and so on for a greater number. 

The expense of fitting up a room with this chair and desk, in the city of New 
York, varies from $1 50 to $2 00 a scholar, aside from the putting up of the 
desks. 

Although we think very highly of these chairs in some respects, we have 
serious objections to the shape and material of the iron back piece. This is 
too low, and not shaped to give the requisite support to the back when fatigued 
from an upright or any other position, long continued. Children, thinly clad, 
and of delicate constitution, must experience inconvenience, and be exposed to 
more serious consequences, from the rapid conduction of heat from the body, 
and especially from the spinal column, coming as the iron support does, across 
the small of the back. We can see no objection to attaching an ordinary shaped 
chair seat and back to the revolving pedestal. Indeed, school chairs of this last 
description are manufactured by Mr. Mott, when ordered. 

Since the above paragraph appeared in the first edition of this work, Mr. 
Mott informs us that he has modified the pattern of the back of his chair to ob- 
viate the objections therein made. The back piece is to be carried higher, and 
the iron is to be covered with cloth or felt. The seat is also to be covered Avith 
a stuffing of felt. 

Mr. Mott has also added another size, both of his chair and scroll stanchions 
for desks, so as to accommodate better the oldest class of scholars in our pub- 
lic schools. 



public school society. jq9 

Public School Society op New York. 

Prior to 1805. the only schools in the city of New York which partook 
at all of the character of public schools, were one established by the 
" Female Association for the Relief of the Poor," in 1802, and those sus- 
tained by different religious denominations for the gratuitous education of 
the children of their own members. These were few, feebly sustained, 
and the course of instruction altogether inadequate. 

In April, 1805, on the petition of De Witt Clinton and other individu- 
als, a " free school" was incorporated by the legislature for the education 
of children who did not belong to, and were not provided for by any reli- 
gious society. This school was. organized in May, 1806, and taught on 
the plan then recently originated by Joseph Lancaster. 

In 1S08, the institution was enlarged by the legislature under the name 
of the " Free School Society of the City of New- York," and the city 
corporation presented a site for a school-house, and entrusted to its keep- 
ing the education of the children of the alms-house. 

In 1809, the first edifice was completed and dedicated to its future pur- 
poses in an address by De Witt Clinton, the president of the society. 

In 1815, the society received its quota ($3,708) of the first apportion- 
ment of the State Fund for the support of Common Schools. 

In 1821, a committee of the society were instructed to correspond with 
distinguished educators, in Europe and the United States, for information 
on the subject of schools, and especially the education of the poor. This 
step resulted in some modifications of the plans of the society, and the 
methods of instruction in the schools. 

In 1828, the first primary school was opened in the Duane street build- 
ing, on the plan of the infant schools, which had been introduced into the 
large cities of the United States, under voluntary efforts. The result was 
favorable. It drew off the younger scholars from the other schools in the 
same building, and facilitated the instruction and government in both 
classes of schools. This school was for a time under the joint manage- 
ment of the society and a committee of ladies from the infant school 
society. At this time, Mr. Samuel S. Seton was employed by the society 
as an agent to visit the families of the poor, to make known the benefits 
of the schools and secure the punctual attendance of delinquent scholars. 
This step led to a knowledge of various abuses, and the introduction of 
several improvements. Mr. Seton has since acted as the Agent of the 
Society, and in this capacity has given unity to all of the operations of 
the several committees of the Board. 

In 1828-29, the schools of the public school society were placed more 
on the basis of ". Common Schools" — open to all, not. as a matter of 
charity, but of right, and supported in part like other great public inter- 
ests, by a general tax. This tax was one eightieth of one percent., and 
was the first tax raised by the city of New York, for the support of Com- 
mon Schools; the memorial by which the attention of the Common 
Council was called to the subject was signed principally by the wealthiest 
citizens. 

In the winter of 1832 a large committee on the part of the society,, was 
appointed to examine into the condition of the schools, and propose such 
modification and improvement, as might be considered judicious. To aid 
the committee with the experience of other cities, two of their number 
were deputed to visit Boston and examine the school system and schools 
of that city. This committee reported certain modifications, which were 
concurred in by the board. These modifications were the establishment 
of primary schools, under female teachers, for the elementary classes, 
with some simple apparatus for visible illustration; an extension of the 



HO SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

studies in the upper public schools, so as to embrace astronomy, algebra, 
geometry, trigonometry, and book-keeping ; an increase of the salaries or 
teachers, the substitution of assistant teachers for certain class recitations 
and reviews, and the opening of recitation rooms for this purpose ; the 
more extended use of blackboard, maps, globes, and other apparatus ; and 
the establishment of evening schools for apprentices, and such as leave 
school at an early age. 

In 1834, owing to the increase of the primary schools, a school was 
opened for the benefit of those who were employed as monitors in that 
class of schools. This plan has been extended so as to embrace such 
pupils of the older class of the upper schools, as from their peculiar taste, 
industry and proficiency, could be recommended as monitors or teachers. 
While in these normal schools, they are denominated " cadets," and such 
as are properly qualified are promoted to the station of monitors, under 
pay, and so on to " passed monitors," from which class the assistant 
teachers are to be selected. These schools now embrace two hundred 
pupils, under the charge of nine teachers, and have already furnished the 
schools with a number of teachers. 

In 1836. owing to a want of one or more high schools in the system, a 
number of scholarships in Columbia College and the University, with 
their preparatory schools, were opened by those having the management 
of these institutions, for such scholars of the public schools as were ad- 
vanced to the limit of the instruction there provided. In 1841-2, simi- 
lar privileges were opened in the Rutgers Female Institute, for a certain 
number of girls. 

In 1842. an act passed the legislature which altered very essentially 
the system of public schools in the city of New York, by providing for the 
appointment of School Commissioners in the several wards, who together 
constitute a Board of Education. 

In 1S44, Mr. Josiah Holbrook's system of scientific exchanges and 
a plan of oral instruction in the natural sciences, were introduced 
into the schools of the Society. The teachers were authorized to 
allow the pupils to occupy a limited portion of time weekly in pre- 
paring specimens of writing, mapping and drawing, with a view to 
the exchanging of such specimens for those of other schools in this and 
other states. These exchanges of the results of mental and artistical 
labors on the part of the pupils, have excited a most healthful rivalry, 
greatly favorable to the development of their mental faculties, while its 
moral influences have been decidedly good. Not the least among its 
benefits has been the cultivating of a taste for the art of drawing, so ne- 
cessary and useful a part of common school education, particularly in 
those pupils designed for mechanical pursuits. Connected with the oper- 
ations here alluded to, was a plan of instruction by short oral lectures on 
the natural sciences, from objects collected and placed in the school cabi- 
nets by the pupils themselves, formed into associations or " school lyce- 
ums." The combined operations of these simple but effective plans, has 
already been productive of sensible improvement in the schools, and its 
benefits thereby extended to others. As an evidence that this new plan 
of operations has excited renewed interest in the pupils for their own im- 
provement, and an increased local attachment to their schools, it may be 
stated, that by the voluntary agency of the pupils themselves, the spon- 
taneous efforts of these " school lyceums" and " scientific exchanges," 
some of the schools have thus acquired extensive cabinets of minerals, 
and other natural objects, with much valuable philosophical apparatus for 
carrying out this useful plan of public instruction. 

In 1845, two hundred volumes of carefully selected books were added 
to the Libraries of all the Public Schools of the Society, for the use oi 
the pupils. 



to 











112 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plans, &c. of High-School, Lowell. 
Fig. ]. — End Elevation. 




[ 


L 

c 


i 

1 

-+ 

1 


1 
1 
1 




bj 


~"T" 

i ] 


i 



mil 



The house stands in the centre of a lot extending from Ann to Kirk street, 
furnishing separate entrances, yard, and play-ground for each sex. 

The house is of brick, 84 feet by 48, with two stories, each 14J feet in the 
clear, one for the male and the other for the female department, and an attic, 
which is arched and fitted up for a writing department. 

A, A, entrances at the ends. B, B, entries, provided with hooks, &c. for 
hats, bonnets, and outer garments. Cb, Cb, single desks and seats. E, E, 
Teacher's platform, 6i feet wide, raised 6 inches above the floor. F, Teach- 
er's desk. G, G, aisles, nearly 4 feet in width, all around the school-room. 
H, room for library, apparatus, &c, 18£ by 12J feet. I, recitation-room, 18£ 
by 12§ feet. J, J, stairways to the second story. K, hot air pipe from 
furnace. 

The rooms are heated by furnaces in the cellar, and ventilated by foui 
.openings in the ceiling, 8 inches by 16, which are carried out in flues buil- 
for this purpose in the chimneys. Each pupil has an area on the floor o 
more than 14 square feet. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, LOWELL. 

Fig. 2.— Lower School-Room. 



113 






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i j 4 school architecture 

Plan, &c, of East School, Salem, Mass. 

The lot on which the house stands extends from Essex street to Bath 
street. — There is a sufficient passage-way on each side of the house, and 
access from each street. The north end faces the common, which affords 
the most ample play-ground, always open. 

The exterior dimensions of the building are 136 by 50 ft. The school- 
rooms are 65 by 36 ft. and 15 ft. high, each : the space in front of the desks, 
65 by 4 ft. 6 inches ; the space occupied by the desks, 59 by 25 ft. ; the 
space in rear of the desks, 65 by 6 ft. 6 inches ; the floor of which is raised 
8 inches above the floor of the rooms ; the side aisles are 3 ft., and all the 
other aisles 18 inches in width. 

The desks are so placed that the scholars sit with their faces towards the 
partition which separates the school-room from the recitation rooms, the 
light being thus admitted in their rear and on one side. 

The desks are 4 ft in length, and of four sizes in width, the two front 
ranges being 16 inches, the two next 15, the two next 14, and the two next 
13. The desks are also of four sizes in height ; the two front ranges being, 
on the lower side, 27 inches, the two next 26, the two next 25, the two 
next 24. 

The desks in each school-room are placed in ranges, each range contain- 
ing eleven desks, and each desk being fitted for two scholars ; so that 176 
scholars may be received in each department, or 352 in the whole school. 
The desks are constructed like tables, with turned legs, narrow rails, in- 
clined top and a shelf beneath. The legs and rails are of birch, stained and 
varnished, and the tops of cherry, oiled and varnished. The legs are se- 
cured in the floor by tenons. The tables of the teachers are constructed 
and finished like the desks of the scholars. 

The chairs are also of four sizes ; those in the two front ranges being 12 
by 12^ inches in the seat, (i. e. extreme width, the sides being of the usual 
shape of chairs,) and 16 inches in height, and those in the succeeding ranges 
being reduced in height in proportion to the desks, and also varying propor- 
tionally in the dimensions of the seats. 

The chairs are constructed with seats of bass wood, and cherry backs ; 
the seats and backs hollowed, and the seats resting on wooden pedestals, 
secured to the floor by tenons and screws. 

Upon the front edge of the raised platform, in the rear of the desks, set- 
tees are placed, which are of the same length as the desks, and are placed 
in corresponding positions, with intervening spaces in continuation of the 
aisles. The settees are placed with the back towards the desks, and are 
designed exclusively for the use of classes attending reviews before the 
principals. The settees in width and height correspond to the largest size 
of chairs, and are constructed of the same materials, and finished in the same 
style. 

In the center and at the extremities of the range of settees, are placed 
tables, (of 4 by 2 ft. 6 inches, oval shape,) which are occupied by the assist- 
ants, during general exercises, when the station of the principal is in front 
of the desks, the middle one being used by the principal when attending 
reviews. 

Each recitation room (18 by 10 ft.) is appropriated to a single course of 
study, as marked upon the plan, and is therefore used exclusively by one 
assistant. Three sides of the room are appropriated to seats, being lined 
with cherry wood, (oiled and varnished) to a height reaching above the 
heads of the scholars. The lining is projected at the bottom, so as to fur- 
nish inclined backs to the seats, which are constructed of cherry wood, 13 
inches in width, 2 inches thick, with hollowed top and rounded edge, sup- 
ported on turned legs, the height being 15£ inches from the top of the seat 
to the floor. The fourth side of the room, opposite the window, is occupied 
by a blackboard of 3 ft. in width, which extends across the space upon 
each side of the door. 

All the spaces between the doors and windows upon the four sides of the 



EAST GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, SALEM. 



115 



school-rooms are occupied by blackboards. In the spaces between the 
windows upon the rear, recesses have been constructed, which are fitted 
with book-shelves, and are closed by means of covers in front, which are 
raised and lowered by weights and pulleys. These covers are blackboards, 
and are so finished as to represent sunken panels. Drawers are construct- 
ed beneath the blackboards to receive the sponges, chalk, &c. 

Circular ventilators are placed in the ceiling of each school-room and 
recitation room ; three in each school-room of 3 ft. in diameter, and one in 
each recitation room of 2 ft. in diameter. These ventilators are solid cov- 
ers of wood, hung with hinges, over apertures of corresponding size, and 
raised or lowered by means of cords passing over pulleys, through the ceil- 
ing into the room below, the cords terminating in loops, which are fastened 
to hooks in the side of the room. When the ventilators are raised, the im- 
pure air escapes into the garret, the ventilation of which is also provided 
for by means of the circular windows in the gable ends, which turn on 
pivots in the center, and are opened or shut by cords passing over pulleys 
in the same manner as the ventilators. 

Each school-room is warmed by a furnace, placed directly under the cen- 
ter of the space in front of the desks, the hot air ascending through a circu- 
lar aperture of 2 ft. in diameter, which is represented upon the plan. The 
smoke-pipe, (of galvanized iron) is conducted upward through the center of 
this aperture, and thence, after passing a considerable distance into the 
school-room, through one of the recitation rooms into the chimney, which 
is built in the center of the front wall. The recitation rooms are warmed 
by means of apertures at the top and bottom respectively of the partitions 
which separate them from the school-rooms, which being open together, 
secure a rapid equalization of temperature in all the rooms. These aper- 
tures are fitted to be closed, with revolving shutters above, and shutters 
hung on hinges below. 

In the partition wall between the school-rooms, is a clock having two 
faces, and thus indicating the hour to the occupants in each room. The 
clock strikes at the end of each half hour. In the ante-rooms, (marked F, 
F, on the plan Fig. 1) are hooks for caps, overcoats, &c. In each of these 
rooms, also, there is a pump and sink. 

In the loioer story, there are two primary school-rooms 36|- ft. by 24^- 
ft., each seating 60 children. Each child has a chair firmly fixed to the 
floor, but no desk. In the rear there is an appropriate shelf for books, 
for each pupil, numbered to correspond with the number on the chair. In 
front of the school, there is a blackboard occupying the distance between the 
doors, and a desk, at which the several classes stand in succession, and 
copy appropriate exercises on the slate from the blackboard. 

For this school-house, with all its completeness of arrangements and 
regulations, the city of Salem is indebted mainly to the indefatigable exer- 
tions of the late Mayor, the Hon. Stephen C. Phillips. During the three 
years of his administration, every school-house was repaired or rebuilt, 
and all the schools brought under an admirable system. On leaving his of- 
fice, in 1842, he gave to the city for 
school purposes, his salary for 
three years, amounting to $2,400, 
which has been applied to repair- 
ing and refurnishing the High 
School building, which is now a 
monument of his taste and mu- 
nificence. 

The High School, and one of 
the new primary schoois, are fur- 
nished with " Kimball's Improved 
School Chair," which for strength, 
comfort, and style of finish, is su- 
it' h School Chair P erior to an y otner now before the Primary School Chair. 
lg c oo air. p U ^j c> 





116 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 
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118 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Description of Latin and English High Schools, Salem. 

The interior of this building is fitted up in a style of ornamental and useful 
elegance which has no parrallel in this country. 

The Latin School is believed to be the first Free School established in the 
United States, and probably in the world, where every person within certaip 
geographical limits, and possessing certain requisites of study, has an equal 
right of admission, free of cost. It was founded in 1637, and has continued 
without interruption, giving a thorough preparation to students for college, to 
the present day. The English High School was established in 1827. 

The walls of the Latin Grammar School are enriched and adorned with 
inscriptions in the Greek and Latin language and character. These are not 
merely apothegms of wisdom, but mementoes of duty ; they are fitted to 
inspire the pupils with noble sentiments, and are the appropriate " Genius of 
the Place.'''' 

The interior of the English High School is adorned in a manner no less 
appropriate and useful. 

In the center of the ceiling is the circle of the zodiac, 29 feet in diameter. 
The ventilator, 3| feet in diameter, represents the sun, the spots being desig- 
nated upon the nucleus in conformity to the latest telescopic observation. 
The divergence of the solar rays is also fully exhibited. The earth is re- 
presented in four different positions, indicating the four seasons. The moon 
also is described in its orbit, and its position so varied as to exhibit its four 
principal changes. The globular figure of the earth is clearly shown, and 
lines are inscribed upon it representing the equator, tropics, and polar circles. 
The hour lines are also marked and numbered. The border of the circle re- 
presents upon its outer edge the signs of the zodiac, with their names, and 
within, the names of the months. The signs are divided into degrees, and 
the months into days, both of which are numbered. The thirty-two points of 
the compass are marked upon the inner edge, the true north and magnetic 
north both correctly indicated, — the variation of the needle having been as- 
certained by a recent series of observations. 

The circle of the zodiac, as thus described, being enclosed within a square 
panel, the exterior spaces in the four angles are filled up as follows : 

The western angle exhibits the planet Saturn, with his rings and belts, as 
seen through a telescope, and his true size in proportion to the sun, supposing 
the circle of the zodiac to represent the size of the sun. The eastern angle 
exhibits Jupiter, with his belts, of a size similarly proportionate. The other 
primary planets and the moon are described according to their relative sizes, 
in the southern angle. In the northern angle is a succession of figures, de- 
signed to represent the varying apparent size of the sun, as seen from the 
different planets. In the ceiling there are also two oblong panels, one towards 
the western, the other towards the eastern extremity. The western panel 
contains a diagram, which illustrates, by their relative position, the distance 
of the several planets, primary and secondary, from the sun, which is placed 
at one end of the panel. The several planets are designated by their signs, 
and the figures, placed opposite to each, show how many millions of miles it 
is distant from the sun. The satellites of the Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, and 
Herschel, are described as revolving in their orbits around their respective 
primaries. The eastern panel contains a diagram, which illustrates the theo- 
ry of the solar and lunar eclipses. The moon is represented in different 
parts of the earth's shadow, and also directly between the earth and the sun. 

Upon the four sides of the room, in the space above the windows and 
doors, eight panels are described, containing as many diagrams, which illus- 
trate successively the following subjects : — 

1. The different phases of the moon. 2. The apparent, direct, and retro 
grade motions of Mercury and Venus. 3. The moon's parallax. 4. The 
commencement, progress, and termination of a solar eclipse. 5. The di- 
minution of the intensity of light, and the force of attraction in proportion to 
the increase of the squares of distance. 6. The transit of Venus over the 
sun's disc. 7. The refraction of the rays of light by the atmosphere, caus- 
ing the sun, or other celestial bodies, to appear above the horizon when actu- 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL-ROUSE, SALEM. Jjg 

ally below it. 8. The theory of the tides, giving distinct views of the full 
and neap tide, as caused by the change of position and the relative attraction 
of the sun and moon. 

The two small panels over the entrance doors represent, respectively, the 
remarkable comets of 1680 and 1811, and the theory of cometary motion as 
described in the plates attached to Blunt's "Beauty of the Heavens." 

The diagram in the large panel upon the north side of the recitation plat- 
form represents the relative height of the principal mountains and the rela- 
tive length of the principal rivers on the globe. The mountains and rivers 
are all numbered, and scales of distance are attached, by which the heights 
and lengths can be 'readily ascertained. The relative elevation of particular 
countries, cities and other prominent places, the limits of perpetual snow, of 
various kinds of vegetation, &'c, are distinctly exhibited. This diagram is a 
copy of that contained in Tanner's Atlas. 

The diagram in the corresponding panel on the south side of the recitation 
platform represents a geological section, the various strata being systematic- 
ally arranged and explained by an index. 

The space between the windows upon the north and south sides of the 
room are occupied by inscriptions in which the diameter, hourly motion, side- 
real period, and diurnal rotation of the several primary planets and the earth's 
moon, are separately stated, according to calculations furnished for the pur- 
pose by Professor Peirce, of Cambridge. The hourly motion and sidereal 
period of the four asteroids are also stated in corresponding inscriptions upon 
the western side. The diameter and rotation of the sun are inscribed upon 
the edge of the circular recess beneath the ventilator. 

Over the frontispiece, which surmounts the recess upon the teacher's ros- 
trum, is a beautifully executed scroll bearing the inscription, 

" Order is Heaven's first Law." 

This motto may be regarded as equally appropriate, whether viewed as ex- 
planatory of the celestial phenomena which are figured upon the walls, or as 
euggesting the principle which should guide the operations of the school. 

The clock is placed within the recess, upon the wall of which the course of 
studies prescribed for the school, and arranged into two divisions, is con- 
spicuously inscribed. 



Many of the charity schools of Holland contain paintings of no incon- 
siderable excellence and value. In Germany, w r here every thing, (excepting 
war and military affairs,) is conducted on an inexpensive scale, the walls of 
the school-rooms were often adorned with cheap engravings and lithographs, 
of distinguished men, of birds, beasts, and fishes ; — and, in many of them, a 
cabinet of natural history had been commenced. And throughout all Prus- 
sia and Saxony, a most delightful impression was left upon my mind by the 
character of the persons whose portraits were thus displayed. Almost with- 
out exception, they were likenesses of good men rather than of great ones, — 
frequently of distinguished educationists and benefactors of the young, 
whose countenances were radiant with the light of benevolence, and the 
very sight of which was a moral lesson to the susceptible hearts of children. 

In the new building for the " poor school" at Leipsic, there is a large hall 
in which the children all assemble in the morning for devotional purposes. 
Over the teacher's desk, or pulpit, is a painting of Christ in the act of blessing 
little children. The design is appropriate and beautiful. Several most for- 
lorn-looking, half-naked children stand before him. He stretches out his 
arms over them, and blesses them. The mother stands by with an expres- 
sion of rejoicing, such as only a mother can feel. The little children look 
lovingly up into the face of the Saviour. Others stand around, awaiting his 
benediction. In the back-ground are aged men, who gaze upon the spectacle 
with mingled love for the children and reverence for their benefactor. 
Hovering above is a group of angels, hallowing the scene with their pres- 
ence. — Mr Mann's Seventh Annual Report. 



120 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Kimball's Improved School Chairs and Desk. 
" These Chairs combine strength, comfort, and style of finish. They are 
made of different heights, varying from eight to sixteen inches, and for Primary 
as well as for Grammar and "District Schools. 




The School Desks are made of Pine, Cherry, or Black Walnut, and of 
heights to correspond with the chairs. The iron supporters are firmly screwed 
to the floor, and are braced in such a manner that there is not the least motion.' ; 

The above extracts are taken from the Circular of James Kimball. 109 or 
127 Essex Street, Salejn, Mass. 

The cuts below represent a view of the desk and seat, and of the frame 
for the same, used 
in the high school 
for girls in New- 
buryport Mass. 
The frame is cast 
iron, to which the 
seat and desk 
is attached by 
screws. The 

frame is strength- 
ened by a brace 
extending from 
each side below 
the seat. 





NORMAL SCHOOLS. 



121 



Normal Schools, or Teachers' Seminaries. 

Before presenting plans of the Normal School-houses recently 
erected in Massachusetts, — the first erected in this hemisphere, — we 
propose to give a brief sketch of the history of Normal Schools in 
this country and in Europe, with references to books* in which a 
minute account of the organization of particular schools can be 
found. 

By a Normal f School, or Teachers' Seminary, is meant an insti- 
tution for the training of young men and young women who aim to 
be teachers, to a thorough and practical knowledge of the duties of the 
school-room, and to the best modes of reaching the heart and intel- 
lect, and of developing and building up the whole character of a 
child. It aims to do for the young and inexperienced teacher, all 
that the direction and example of the master-workman, and all that 
the experience of the workshop do for the young mechanic — all that 
the naval and military schools do for those who lead in any capacity 
in the army or navy— all that the law school, or the medical school, 
or the theological seminary do for the professions of law, medicine, 
or theology. In every department of mechanical, artistic, or profes- 
sional labor, the highest skill is attained only after long and appro- 
priate training under wise superintendence ; and the Normal School 
aims to impart this previous training by providing a thorough course 
of instruction, under competent teachers, with reference to teaching 
the same things to others. This course of instruction involves the 
whole art of teaching — a knowledge of human nature, and of a 
child's nature in particular — of the human mind, and especially of a 
child's mind, and of the order in which its several faculties should 
be called into exercise ; of the best motives by which good habits 
of study can be cultivated in the young ; of the arrangement and 
classification of scholars, and of the best means and appliances for 
securing obedience and order, and keeping alive an interest in the 
daily exercises of the school. And this art of teaching must be 
illustrated and exemplified by those who are to apply it, in a model 
school. The idea of such a school is not a mere speculation of 
ardent benevolence — it is an existing reality in this country as well 
as in Europe. 

The first school specially destined for educating the teacher in the 
principles and practice of his profession, was instituted by Franke, 
in connection with his Orphan House, at Halle, in 1704. Previous 
to this date, lectures on the art of teaching were delivered in con- 
nection with the higher seminaries of education, at Gotha, Wesel, 
and Brunswick. 

In 1735, the first regular seminary for teachers in Prussia was 

* See Catalogue of Books on Education, p. 386. 

t The word normal is derived from the Latin, norma, signifying a square, an 
instrument used by builders, a rule, & pattern, a model. In the adjective form, 
normalis signifies right by the square, pattern, or model. As applied to a school 
for teachers, the word normal means a model school for teachers, an institution 
where correct principles of teaching are taught, and where the art of teaching 
is exemplified in correct practice. 



122 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



established in Pomerania, and the second at Berlin, in 1748, by 
Hecker, a pupil of Franke. By a royal ordinance in 1752, Frederic 
2d enjoined that all vacancies in the country schools on the crown 
lands, iu certain sections of his kingdom, should be supplied by pu- 
pils from Hecker's Seminary. The King at the same time allowed 
an annual stipend for the support of twelve alumni of this establish- 
ment, a number which in 1788 was raised to sixty. In 1773, the 
chools established at Rekahn, in Brandenburg, became the model 
Bchools to which young men resorted from every part of Germany 
to be trained in the principles and practice of primary instruction. 
Prior to 1800, there were but six of these institutions in Prussia. 
But it is the pride and glory of this monarchy, that in periods of the 
greatest national distress and disaster, when the armies of France 
were desolating her fields, occupying her citadels, and diverting her 
revenues, the great work of improving her schools was never lost 
sight of. The establishment of teachers' seminaries still went for- 
ward ; that at Konigsbnrg in 1809, at Branersburg in 1810, and at 
Breslau in 1812. But not content with establishing these semina- 
ries at home, the most promising young teachers were sent into 
other countries to acquire a knowledge of all improvements in the 
science and art of education. 

Normal Schools were introduced into Hanover in 1757 ; into Aus- 
tria in 1767; into Switzerland in 1805; into France in 1808 ; into 
Holland in 1816 ; into Belgium in 1843, and into England in 1842. 
In Prussia and most of the German States, there are now enough 
of these institutions to supply the demand for teachers in the public 
schools. Saxony, with a population less than that of the State of 
New York, supports five Normal Schools, and Saxe-Weimar, with a 
population less than that of Connecticut, supports two. Prussia, with 
a population of fourteen millions, has at this time forty-nine semina- 
ries, in which there are nearly three thousand teachers. At the end 
of three years after leaving the seminary, the young teachers return 
for a re-examination. 

In Great Britain, after years of strenuous effort on the part of the 
friends of popular education, the importance of Normal Schools as 
the chief means for improving the qualifications of teachers, has 
been recognized by the Government. The Training School at 
Chelsea, (called St. Mark's College,) under the management of the 
National Society, the Normal and Model School of the British and 
Foreign School Society, the Battersea Training School, and the 
Model School of the Infant School Society in England, the Model 
School of the National Board for Ireland, the Normal Schools at 
Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, are all aided out of the annual 
parliamentary grant for education. 

In this country, the claims of these institutions were first distinctly 
presented by Rev. Thomas H. Gallaudet, of Hartford, Conn., in 
1825, and by James G. Carter, of Lancaster, Mass., in a series of 
essays on the subject, and by William Russell, of Boston^ in the 
Journal of Education for 1826. One fact is certain, the improve- 
ment of schools in every country has followed hand in hand with the 
establishment, multiplication, and improvement of Normal Schools. 



NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 123 

New York State Normal School. 

The history of the efforts to secure a professional education and 
training for the teachers of common schools in the State of New York, 
is full of instruction and encouragement to those who are laboring in 
the same direction in other States. Among the earliest and most 
earnest advocates of legislative provision on this subject, stands the 
name of De Witt Clinton. In his message to the Legislature in 1819, 
Governor Clinton remarks : 

" The most durable impressions are derived from the first stages oi 
education ; ignorant and vicious preceptors and injudicious and ill- 
arranged systems of education must have a most pernicious influence 
upon the habits, manners, morals and minds of our youth, and vitiate 
their conduct through life." In 1820, he used the following language : 
" The education of youth is an important trust, and an honorable voca- 
tion, but it is too often committed to unskillful hands. Liberal encour- 
agement ought to be dispensed for increasing the number of competent 
teachers." In 1825, after speaking of the cause of education generally, 
the Governor says : " In furtherance of this invaluable system, I recom- 
mend to your consideration the education of competent teachers," &c. 

In his message to the Legislature, at the opening of the session of 
1826, he thus adverts to the subject of the proper preparation of common 
school teachers : 

" Our system of instruction, with all its numerous benefits, is still, 
however, susceptible of improvement. Ten years of the life of a child 
may now be spent in a common school. In two years the elements of 
instruction may be acquired, and the remaining eight years must either 
be spent in repetition or idleness, unless the teachers of common schools 
are competent to instruct in the higher branches of knowledge. The 
outlines of geography, algebra, mineralogy, agricultural chemistry, me- 
chanical philosophy, surveying, geometry, astronomy, political economy 
and ethics, might be communicated in that period of time, by able pre- 
ceptors, without essential inteference with the calls of domestic industry. 
The vocation of a teacher in its influence on the character and destiny 
of the rising and all future generations, has either not been fully under- 
stood, or duly estimated. It is, or ought to be, ranked among the learned 
professions. With a full admission of the merits of several who now 
officiate in that capacity, still it must be conceded that the information of 
many of the instructors of our common schools does not extend beyond 
rudimental education ; that our expanding population requires constant 
accession to their numbers ; and that to realize these views, it is neces- 
sary that some new plan for obtaining able teachers should be devised. 
I therefore recommend a seminary for the education of teachers in those 
useful branches of knowledge which are proper to engraft on elementary 
attainments. A compliance with this recommendation will have the 
most benign influence on individual happiness and social prosperity." 

And again, in his message in 1828, Governor Clinton urges the subject 
on the attention of the Legislature. 

" It may be taken for granted, that the education of the body of the 
people can never attain the requisite perfection without competent in- 
structors, well acquainted with the outlines of literature and the elements 
of science." He recommends with this view, " a law authorizing the 
supervisors of each county to raise a sum not exceeding $2000, provided 



124 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

that the same sum is subscribed by individuals, for the erection of a suit- 
able edifice for a Monitorial High School, in the county town. I can 
conceife of no reasonable objection to the adoption of a measure so well 
calculated to raise the character of our school masters, and to double the 
powers of our artizans by giving them a scientific education." 

In 1826, Hon. John C. Spencer, from the Literature Committee of the 
Senate, to whom the message of Governor Clinton for that year had 
been referred, made a report, recommending among other plans for the 
improvement of common schools, that the income of the " Literature 
Fund" be divided among the academies of the State, not in reference to 
the number of classical students in each, but "to the number of persons in- 
structed in each, who shall have been licensed as teachers of common 
schools by a proper board." He thus introduces the subject : 

" In the view which the committee have taken, our great reliance for 
nurseries of teachers must be placed on our colleges and academies. If 
they do not answer this purpose, they can be of very little use. That 
they have not hitherto been more extensively useful in that respect is 
owing to inherent defects in the system of studies pursued there. When 
the heads of our colleges are apprised of the great want of teachers 
which it is so completely in their power to relieve, if not supply, it is but 
reasonable to expect that they will adopt a system by which young men 
whose pursuits do not require a knowledge of classics, may avail them- 
selves of the talent and instruction in those institutions, suited to their 
wants, without being compelled also to receive that which they do not 
want, and for which they have neither time nor money." 

" In 1827, Mr. Spencer, from the same Committee, reported a bill en- 
titled ' An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appropriation 
to common schools, to increase the Literature Fund, and to promote the 
education of teachers,' by Avhich the sum of $150,000 was added to the 
Literature Fund. And the Regents of the University were required 
annually to distribute the whole income of this fund among the several 
incorporated academies and seminaries, which then were or might there- 
after become subject to their visitation, 'in proportion to the number of 
pupils instructed in each academy or seminary for six months during the 
preceding year, who shall have pursued classical studies, or the higher 
branches of English education, or both.' In the report accompanying 
this bill, which, on the 13th of April, became a law, the committee ex- 
pressly observe, that their object in" thus increasing this fund is 'to pro- 
mote the education of young men in those studies which will prepare 
them for the business of instruction, which it is hoped may be accom- 
plished to some extent, by offering inducements to the trustees of acade- 
mies to educate pupils of that description.' 'In vain will you have 
established a system of instruction ; in vain will you appropriate money 
to educate the children of the poor, if you do not provide persons compe- 
tent to execute your system, and to teach the pupils collected in the 
schools. And every citizen who has paid attention to it and become ac- 
quainted practically with the situation of our schools, knows that the in- 
competency of the great mass of teachers is a radical defect which 
impedes the whole system, frustrates the benevolent designs of the 
Legislature, and defeats the hopes and wishes of all who feel an interest 
in disseminating the blessings of education.' 'Having undertaken a 
.system of public instruction, it is the solemn duty of the Legislature to 
make that system as perfect as possible. We have no right to trifie with 



NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. ^25 

the funds of our constituents, by applying them in a mode which fails to 
attain the intended object. Competent teachers of common schools must 
be proyided ; the academies of the State furnish the means of making 
that provision. There are funds which may be safely and properly 
applied to that object, and if there were none, a more just, patriotic, and 
in its true sense, popular reason for taxation cannot be urged. Let us 
aid the efforts of meritorious citizens who have devoted large portions of 
their means to the rearing of academies ; let us reward them by giving 
success to their efforts; let us sustain seminaries that are falling into 
decay ; let us revive the drooping and animate the prosperous, by cheer- 
ing rays of public beneficence ; and thus let us provide nurseries for the 
education of our children, and for the instruction of teachers who will 
expand and widen and deepen the great stream of education, until it 
shah reach our remotest borders, and prepare our posterity for the main- 
tenance of the glory and prosperity of their country.' " 

The legal provision for the better education of teachers rested on this 
basis until 1834, when an act was passed, by which the surplus in- 
come of the Literature Fund over twelve thousand dollars was placed at 
the disposal of the Regents of the University, to be by them distributed 
to such academies, subject to their visitation as they might select, and to 
be exclusively devoted to the education of teachers for the common schools, 
in such manner and under such regulations as they might prescribe. 

In pursuance of the provisions of the act of 2d of May, 1834, author- 
izing the Regents of the University to apply a part of the income to the 
Literature Fund to the education of common school teachers, a plan was 
reported on the 8th of January, 1835, by Gen. Dix, from the committee 
appointed for that purpose, to the Regents with the view of carrying 
into effect the intention of the act. This plan was approved and adopt- 
ed by the Regents ; and one academy was selected in each of the eight 
Senate districts, charged with the establishment of a Department spe- 
cially adapted to the instruction of teachers of common schools. To sup- 
port these departments, each academy received from the Literature 
Fund, a sufficient sum to procure the necessary apparatus for the illus- 
tration of the various branches required to be taught ; the sum of $191 
to be appropriated to the enlargement of the academical library ; and an 
annual appropriation of $400 to meet the increased expense which might 
devolve upon the institution in consequence of the establishment of the 
teachers' department. 

In his annual Report for 1836, the Superintendent (Gen. Dix.) again 
adverts to the fact, that in the adoption of this system ' the Legislature 
has merely provided for the more complete execution of a design long 
entertained, so far as respects the employment of the academies for this 
purpose. The propriety of founding separate institutions," he continues, 
° upon the model of the seminaries for teachers in Prussia, was for several 
years a subject of public discussion in this State! It was contended, on 
the one hand, that such institutions would be more likely to secure the 
object in view; and on the other, that it might be as effectually and 
more readily accomplished through the organized academies.' After 
again referring to the act of April 13, 1S27, he concludes : 

" Thus although the plan of engrafting upon the academies, depart- 
ments for the preparation of teachers, may not have been contemplated 
at the time, yet this measure is to be regarded only as a more complete 
development of the design of the Legislature in passing the act refer- 
red to." 

" By the 8th section of the act of April 17, 1838, appropriating the in- 
eome of the United States Deposite Fund to the purposes of education, 



126 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

&c, the sum of $28,000 wa s directed to be annually paid over to the 
Literature Fund, and apportioned among the several academies of the 
State; and by the 9th section, it was made the duty of the Re- 
gents of the University ' to require every academy receiving a 
distributive share of public money, under the preceding section equal to 
seven hundred dollars per annum, to establish and maintain in such 
academy, a department for the instruction of common school teachers, 
under the direction of the said Regents, as a condition of receiving the 
distributive share of every such academy.' Under this provision eight 
academies, in addition to those designated specially for this purpose by 
the Regents, established departments for the education of teachers. 

Desirous of knowing the practical operation of the departments thus 
organized, the superintendent (Mr. Spencer) during the summer of 
1840, commissioned the Rev. Dr. Potter of Union College, and D. H. 
Little, Esq. of Cherry-Valley, to visit these institutions, and report the 
result of their examinations to the department, accompanied by such 
suggestions as they might deem expedient. Prof. Potter in his report, 
after enumerating the various advantages and defects which had pre- 
sented themselves to his observation in the course of his examination;, 
observes in conclusion : 

' The principal evil comiected with our present means of training 
teachers, is, that they contribute to supply instructors for select rather 
than for common schools ; and that for want of special exercises, they 
perform even that work imperfectly. I would suggest whether some 
means might not be adopted for training a class of teachers, with more 
especial reference to country common schools, and to primary schools 
in villages and cities ; teachers whose attainments should not extend much 
beyond the common English branches, but whose minds should be awa- 
kened by proper influence ; who should be made familiar by practice 
with the best modes of teaching ; and who should come under strong 
obligations to teach for at least two or three years. In Prussia and France, 
normal schools are supported at the public expense ; most of the pupils 
receive both board and tuition gratuitously ; but at the close of the course 
they give bonds to refund the whole amount received, unless they teach 
under the direction of the government for a certain number of years. 
That such schools, devoted exclusively to the preparation of teaching, 
have some advantages over any other method, is sufficiently apparent 
from the experience of other nations : and it has occurred to me that, 
as supplementary to our present system, the establishment of one in this 
State might be eminently useful. If placed under proper auspices and 
located near the Capitol, where it could enjoy the supervision of the Su- 
perintendent of Common Schools, and be visited by the members of the 
Legislature, it might contribute in many ways to raise the tone of in- 
struction throughout the State.' 

From an examination of these reports, the Superintendent comes to 
the conclusion that ' these departments ought not to be abandoned, but 
sustained and encouraged, and the means of establishing a large numbei 
in other academies provided. They, with the other academies and col- 
leges of the State, furnish the supply of teachers indispensable to the 
maintenance of our schools.' He recommends ' the extension of the 
public patronage to all the academies in the State, to enable them to 
establish teachers' departments ; and in those counties where there are 
no academies, the establishment of normal schools.' ' One model school 
or more,' he thinks, ' might be advantageously established in some cen- 
tral parts of the State, to which teachers, and those intending to be such, 
might repair to acquire the best methods of conducting our commoB 
schools.' 



NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 127 

By a resolution adopted by the Regents of the University, on the 4th 
of May of the same year, eight additional academies were designated 
for the. establishment and maintenance of teachers' departments; and the 
appropriation to each of the institutions in which such departments had 
been organized by the Regents, reduced to $300 per annum. At this 
period, including the academies which were required, under the act of 
1838, to maintain such departments in consequence of the receipt of a 
specified portion of the Literature Fund, the number of academies in 
which departments for the education of teachers were organized was 
twenty-three, and the number of students taught in them about six 
hundred." 

The above facts and extracts have been principally gathered from a 
e Report of the Committee on Colleges, Academies, and Common 
Schools," to the House of Representatives in 1844, of which Mr. Hul- 
burd, of St. Lawrence, was chairman, and the author of the able docu- 
ment referred to. The Committee, on passing to the consideration of 
a State Normal School, remark : 

" From this recapitulation, it will appear that the principal reliance 
of the friends and supporters of the common schools, for an adequate 
supply of teachers, has, from a very early period, been upon the acade- 
mies-, that the inability of the latter to supply this demand, induced, in 1827, 
an increase of $150,000 of the fund, applicable to their support ; and this for 
the express purpose of enabling them to accomplish this object ; that the 
Regents of the University, the guardians of these institutions, charac- 
terized this increase of the fund as an unwonted and " extraordinary " 
act of liberality on the part of the State towards them ; explicitly recog- 
nized the condition, or rather the avowed expectations on which it was 
granted ; accepted the trust, and undertook to perform those conditions, 
and to fulfill those expectations ; that, to use the language of one of the 
superintendents, ' the design of the law was not sustained by the measures 
necessary to give it the form and effect of a system ;' that to remedy 
this evil, one academy was specially designated in each Senate district 
with an endowment of $500 to provide the necessary means and facili- 
ities of instruction, and an annual appropriation of $400, for the main- 
tenance of a department for the education of teachers ; and soon after- 
wards the sum of $28,000 added to the Literature Fund from the avails 
of the U. S. Deposite Fund, while eight additional academies were 
required to organize and maintain similar departments ; that, finally, the 
number of these departments was augmented to twenty-three, and every 
exertion put forth to secure the great results originally contemplated in 
their establishment ; and that in the judgment of successive superinten- 
dents of common schools, the Regents of the University and the most 
eminent and practical friends of education throughout the state, these 
institutions, whether considered in the aggregate or with reference to 
those specially designated, from time to time, for the performance of this 
important duty, of supplying the common schools with competent teachers, 
have not succeeded in the accomplishment of that object. Having, 
therefore, to revert again to the language of the superintendent before 
referred to, ' proved inadequate to the ends proposed,' may not now ' a 
change of plan be insisted on without being open to the objection of 
abandoning a system which has not been fairly tested V And have the 
academies any just reason to complain, if they are not longer permitted 
to enjoy undiminished the liberal appropriations conferred upon them by 
the State for a specific object ; an object which they have not been able 
satisfactorily to accomplish ?" 



|28 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

This committee having satisfied themselves that all former legislation 
on this subject was inadequate, and having examined, by a sub-com- 
mittee, the Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and inquired into their 
operation in other countries, recommended the establishment of a Normal 
School at Albany, " for the education and training of teachers for com- 
mon schools," and that the sum of $9,600 for the first year, and $10,000 
annually for five years thereafter, in appropriations for its support. This 
recommendation was adopted by an almost unanimous vote. 

This institution is required to be located in the county of Albany; and 
is to be under the supervision, management and direction of the Superin- 
tendent of Common Schools and the Regents of the University, who are 
authorized and required "from time to time to make all needful rales and 
regulations ; to fix the number and compensation of teachers and others 
to be employed therein ; to prescribe the preliminary examination, and 
the terms and conditions on which pupils shall be received and instructed 
therein — the number of pupils from the respective cities and counties, 
conforming as nearly as may be to the ratio of population — to fix the lo- 
cation of the said school, and the terms and conditions on which tbo 
grounds and buildings therefor shall be rented, if the same shall not be 
provided by the corporation of the city of Albany ; and to provide in all 
things for the good government and management of the said school.' 5 
They are required to appoint a board, consisting of five persons, inclu- 
ding the Superintendent of Common Schools, who are to constitute an 
executive committee for the care, management and government of the 
school, under the rules prescribed by the Board of Regents. Such 
executive committee, are to make full and detailed reports from time to 
time to- the Superintendent and Regents, and among other things to re- 
commend such rules and regulations as they may deem proper for said 
schools. 

The superintendent and Regents are required annually to transmit to 
the Legislature an account of their proceedings and expenditures, together 
with a detailed report from the executive committee, relating to the pro- 
gress, condition, and prospects of the school. 

The city of Albany tendered the use of a suitable building, free of 
rent, for the use of the institution, and the school was organized and 
commenced the business of instruction in December, 1844, under the 
charge of David P. Page, Esq., of Newburyport, Mass., as Principal. 

The following members composed the Executive Committee, under 
which the institution was organized: Hon. Samuel Young, State 
Superintendent, Rev. Alonzo Potter, D. D., Rev. Wm. H. Campbell 
Gideon Hawley and Francis DwigM i Esqrs. 



NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. [ 29 

The following account of the State Normal School is copied from 
the Annual Circular of the Executive Committee, for 1847. 

" The Normal School for the State of New York, was established by 
an act of the Legislature in 1844, ' for the instruction and practice of 
Teachers of Common Schools, in the science of Education, and in the 
art of Teaching.' Its sole object is to improve the teachers of Common 
Schools ; and the course of study and conditions of admission have been 
adopted with reference to that object. 

Each county in the State is entitled to send to the School a number of 
pupils, (either male or female,) equal to twice the number of members of 
the Assembly in such county. The pupils are appointed by the county 
and town superintendents at a meeting called by the county super- 
intendent for that purpose. Tins meeting should be held and the ap- 
pointment made at least two weeks before the commencement of each 
term, or as soon as information is received as to the number of vacancies. 
A list of the vacancies for each term will be published in the District School 
Journal, as early as the number of such vacancies can be ascertained, — 
usually before the close of the former term. 

Pupils once admitted to the school will have the right to remain until 
they graduate; unless they forfeit that right by voluntarily vacating 
their place, or by improper conduct. 

Course of Study. The following is the course of study for the 
school ; and a thorough acquaintance with the whole of it, on the part of 
the male pupils, is made a condition for graduating : 

1. Orthography, Normal Chart. 2. Analysis of Derivative Words. 
3. Reading and Elocution. 4. Writing, Geography and Outline Maps, 
(with map drawing.) 5. English Grammar, (with Composition.) 
6. History of United States. 7. Human Physiology. 8. Mental Arith- 
metic. 9. Elementary Arithmetic. 10. Higher Arithmetic. 11. Ele- 
mentary Algebra. 12. Higher Algebra. 13. Geometry, Six Books. 
14. Plane Trigonometry. 15. Land Surveying. 16. Natural Philoso- 
phy. 17. Chemistry, (with experimental lectures.) 18. Intellectua* 
Philosophy. 19. Moral Philosophy. 20. Constitutional Law, with 
select parts of the Statutes of this State, most intimately connected 
with the rights and duties of citizens. 21. Rhetoric, Lectures. 
22. Theory and Practice of Teaching, Lectures and Experimental 
School, 23. Mathematical Geography, Use of Globes, and Elements of 
Astronomy, Lectures. 24. Lessons in Drawing and Vocal Music, to be 
given to all. 

The same course of study, omitting the Higher Algebra, Plane Trig- 
onometry and Surveying, must be attained by females as a condition of 
graduating. 

N. B. Any of the pupils who desire further to pursue mathematics, 
can be allowed to do so after completing the above course of study. 

Qualification of Applicants. Females sent to the school must be 
sixteen years of age, and males eighteen. 

The superintendents, in making their appointments, are urged to pay 
no regard to the political opinions of applicants. The selections should 
be made with reference to the moral worth and abilities of the candidates. 
Decided preference ought to be given to those, who, in the judgment of 
the superintendents, give the highest promise of becoming the most effi- 
cient teachers of common schools. It is also desirable that those only 

9 



130 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

should be appointed who have already a good knowledge of the common 
branches of study, and who intend to remain in the school until they 
graduate. 

Entrance. All the pupils, on entering the school, are required to 
sign the following declaration: 

' We the subscribers hereby declare, that it is our intention to devote 
ourselves to the business of teaching district schools, and that our sole ob- 
ject in resorting to this Normal School is the better to prepare ourselves 
for that important duty.'' 

As this should be signed in good faith on the part of the pupils, they 
should be made acquainted with its import before they are appointed. It 
is expected of the superintendents, that they shall select such as will 
sacredly fulfill their engagements in this particular. 

Pupils on entering the school are subjected to a thorough examination, 
and are classified according to their previous attainments. The time re- 
quired to accomplish the course will depend upon the attainments and 
talents of the pupil, varying from one to four terms. Very few, however, 
can expect to graduate in one term. 

Privileges of the Pupils. All pupils receive their tuition free. 
They are also furnished with the use of text-books without charge; 
though if they already own the books of the course, they would do well 
to bring them, together with such other books for reference as they may 
possess. Moreover, they draw a small sum from the fund for the support 
of the school, to defray in part their expenses. 

It is proposed to apportion the sum of $1,700 among the 256 pupils, 
who may compose the school during the next term. 1. Each pupil shall 
receive three cents a mile on the distance from his county town to the 
city of Albany. 2. The remainder of the $1,700 shall then be divided 
equally among the students in attendance. 

The following list will show how much a student of each county will 
receive, during the ensuing term : 

Albany, $2.41; Allegany, $10.09; Broome. $6.76; Cattaraugus, 
$11.17; Cayuga, $7.09; Chautauque, $12.49; Chemung, $8.35; Che- 
nango, $5.41; Clinton, $7.27; Columbia, $3.28; Cortland, $6.67; Dela- 
ware, $4.72; Dutchess, $4.66; Erie, $10.93; Essex, $6.19; Franklin, 
$8.77; Fulton, $3.76; Genesee, $9.73; Greene, $3.43 ; Hamilton, $4.87; 
Herkimer, $4.81; Jefferson, $7.21; Kings, $6.97; Lewis, $6.28; Living- 
ston, $9.19; Madison, $5.44; Monroe, $8.98; Montgomery, $3,61 ; New- 
York, $6.85; Niagara, $10.72; Oneida, $5.29; Onondaga, $6.40; Ontario, 
$8.26; Orange, $5.44; Orleans, $10.12; Oswego, $7.21; Otsego, $4.39; 
Putnam, $5.59; Q,ueens, $7.63; Rensselaer, $2.59; Richmond, $7.32; 
Rockland, $6.07; Saratoga, $4.78; Schenectady, $2.86; Schoharie, 
$3.07; Seneca, $7.54; St. LaAvrence, $8.59; Steuben, $8.89; Suffolk, 
$9.16; Sullivan, $5.80; Tioga, $7.42; Tompkins, $7.31; Ulster, $4.15; 
Warren, $4.27 ; Washington, $3.85 ; Wayne, $7.84; Westchester, $6.46; 
Wyoming, $9.85 ; Yates, $7.96. 

It is proper to state, that if the number of pupils is less than 256, the 
sum to be received will be proportionately increased. The above sched- 
ule shows, therefore, the minimum sum to be received by each pupil. 
His apportionment cannot be less than as above stated, and it may be 
more. 

This money will be paid at the close of the term. 

Apparatus. A well assorted apparatus has been procured, sufficiently 
extensive to illustrate all the important principles in Natural Philosophy, 
Chemistry, and Human Physiology. Extraordinary facilities for the 
study of Physiology are afforded by the Museum of the Medical College, 
which is open at all hours for visiters. 



NEW YORK STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 131 

Library. Besides an abundant supply of text-books upon all the 
branches of the course of study, a well selected miscellaneous library has 
been procured, to which all the pupils may have access free of charge. 
In the selection of this library, particular care has been exercised to pro- 
cure most of the recent works upon Education, as well as several val- 
uable standard works upon the Natural Sciences, History, Mathematics, 
&c. The State library is also freely accessible to all. 

Terms and Vacations. The year is divided into two terms, so as 
to bring the vacations into April and October, the months for holding the 
Teachers' Institutes. This also enables the pupils to take advantage of 
the cheapness of traveling by the various means of water communication 
in the State, in going to and from the school. 

The Summer Term commences on the first Monday in May, and 
continues twenty weeks, with an intermission of one week from the 
first of July. 

The Winter Term commences on the first Monday in Novemeer, 
and continues twenty-two weeks, with an intermission from Christmas 
to New Year's day inclusive. 

Prompt Attendance. As the school will open on Monday, it would 
be for the advantage of the pupils, if they should reach Albany by the 
Thursday or Friday preceding the day of opening. The Faculty can 
then aid them im securing suitable places for boarding. 

As the examinations of the pupils preparatory for classification will 
commence on the first day of- the term, it is exceedingly important that 
all the pupils should report themselves on the first morning. Those who 
arrive a day after the time, will subject not only the teachers to much 
trouble, but themselves also to the rigors of a private examination. 
After the first week, no student, except for xhe strongest reasons, shall be 
allowed to enter the school. 

Price of Board. The price of board in respectable families, varies 
from $1.50 to $2.00, exclusive of washing. Young gentlemen by taking 
a room and boarding themselves, have sustained themselves at a lower 
rate. This can better be done in the summer term. 

The ladies and gentlemen are not allowed to board in the same fam- 
ilies. Particular care is taken to be assured of the respectability of the 
families who propose to take boarders, before they are recommended t-o 
the pupils. 

Experimental School. Two spacious rooms in the building are 
appropriated to the accommodation of the two departments of this school. 
These two departments are under the immediate supervision of the Per- 
manent Teacher, who is a graduate of the Normal School. 

The object of this school is to afford each Normal Pupil an opportunity 
of practising the methods of instruction and discipline inculcated at the 
Normal School, as well as to ascertain his 'aptness to teach,' and to dis- 
charge the various other duties pertaining to the teacher's responsible 
office. Each member of the graduating class is required to spend at 
least two weeks in this department 

In the experimental School there are ninety-three pupils between the 
ages of six and sixteen years. Fifty-eight of these are free pupils. 
The free seats will be hereafter given exclusively to fatherless children, 
residing in the city of Albany. This is in consideration of an appropria- 
tion by the city to defray in part the expense of fitting up one of the 
rooms of the school. The remaining thirty-five pupils are charged 
$20 per year for tuition and use of books. This charge is made merely 
to defray the expense of sustaining the school." 



132 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

State Normal Schools in Massachusetts. 

The following brief account of the history and organization of 
the State Normal Schools, in Massachusetts, is copied from the 
" Tenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board of Educa- 
tion." 

" In a communication made by the Secretary of the Board of Education 
to the Legislature, dated March 12, 1838, it was stated that private mu- 
nificence had placed at his disposal the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be 
expended, under the direction of the Board of Education, for qualifying 
teachers for our Common Schools, on condition that the Legislature 
would place in the hands of the Board an equal sum, to be expended for 
the same purpose. 

On the 19th of April, of the same year, resolves were passed, accepting 
the proposition, and authorizing the Governor, with the advice and con- 
sent of the Council, to draw his warrant upon the treasurer for the sum o. 
ten thousand dollars, to be placed at the disposal of the Board for the 
purpose specified in the original communication." 

The following is a copy of the Resolve and of the Report of the 
Committee on the subject : 

" The Joint Committee, to whom was referred the communication of the Hon, 
Horace Mann, Secretary of the Board of Education, relative to a fund for the 
promotion of the cause of popular education in this Commonwealth, and also 
the memorial of the Nantucket County Association for the promotion of educa- 
tion, and the improvement of schools, and also the petition and memorial of 
the inhabitants of the town of Nantucket, on the same subject, having duly con- 
sidered the matter therein embraced, respectfully report, 

That the highest interest in Massachusetts is, and will always continue to 
be, the just and equal instruction of all her citizens, so far as the circumstances 
of each individual will permit to be imparted •, that her chief glory, for two 
hundred years, has been the extent to which this instruction was diffused, the 
result of the provident legislation, to promote the common cause, and secure 
the perpetuity of the common interest ; that for many years a well-grounded 
apprehension has been entertained, of the neglect of onr common town schools 
by large portions of our community, and of the comparative degradation to 
which these institutions might fall from such neglect; that the friends of uni- 
versal education have long looked to the Legislature for the establishment of 
one or more seminaries devoted to the purpose of supplying qualified teachers, 
for the town and district schools, by whose action alone other judicious provi- 
sions of the law could be carried into fall effect j that at various times, the delib- 
eration of both branches of the General Court has been bestowed upon this, 
among other subjects, most intimately relating to the benefit ol the rising gen- 
eration and of all generations to come, particularly when the provision for 
instruction of school teachers was specially urged on their consideration, in 
1827, by the message of the Governor, and a report thereupon, accompanied by 
a bill, was submitted by the chairman, now a member of the Congress of the 
United States, following out to their fair conclusions, the suggestion of the Ex- 
ecutive, and the forcible essays of a distinguished advocate of this institution at 
great length, published and widely promulgated ; that although much has been 
done within two or three years, for the encouragement of our town schools by 
positive enactment, and more by the liberal spirit, newly awakened in our sev- 
eral communities, yet the number of competent teachers is found, by universal 
experience, so far inadequate to supply the demand for them, as to be the prin- 
cipal obstacle to improvement, and the greatest deficiency of our republic ; that 
we can hardly expect, as in the memorials from Nantucket is suggested, to re- 
move this deficiency even in a partial degree, much less to realize the comple- 
tion of the felicitous system of our free schools, without adopting means for 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS J 33 

more uniform modes of tuition and government in them, without better observ- 
ing the rules of prudence in the selection of our common books, the unlimited 
diversity of which is complained of throughout the State, and that these ben- 
efits may reasonably be expected to follow from no other course than a well- 
devised scheme in full operation, for the education of teachers ; that the 
announcement, in the communication recently received from the Secretary of 
the Board of Education, of that private munificence, which offers $10,000 to 
this Commonwealth, for removal of this general want, at least in the adoption 
of initiatory measures of remedy, is received by us with peculiar pleasure, and, 
in order that the General Court may consummate this good, by carrying forward 
the benevolent object of the unknown benefactor, the committee conclude, with 
recommending the passage of the subjoined resolutions. 

All which is respectfully submitted, 

James Savage, per order. 

RESOLVES 

RELATIVE TO QUALIFYING TEACHERS FOR COMMON SCHOOLS 

Whereas, by letter from the Honorable Horace Mann, Secretary of the 
Board of Education, addressed, on the 12th March current, to the President of 
the Senate, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, it appears, that 
private munificence has placed at his disposal the sum of ten thousand dollars, 
to promote the cause of popular education in Massachusetts, on condition that 
the Commonwealth will contribute from "unappropriated funds, the same 
amount in aid of the same cause, the two sums to be drawn upon equally from 
time to time, as needed, and to be disbursed under the direction of the Board of 
Education in qualifying teachers for our Common Schools ; therefore, 

Resolved, That his Excellency, the Governor, be, and he is hereby authorized 
and requested, by and with the advice and consent of the Council, to draw his 
warrant upon the Treasurer of the Commonwealth in favor of the Board of 
Education, for the sum of $10,000, in sueh installments and at such times, as 
said Board may request : provided, said Board, in their request, shall certify, 
that the Secretary of said Board has placed at their disposal an amount equal 
to that for which such application may by them be made ; both sums to be ex- 
pended, under the direction of said Board, in qualifying teachers for the Com- 
mon Schools in Massachusetts. 

Resolved., That the Board of Education shall render an annual account of 
the manner in which said moneys have been by them expended." 

"The Board, after mature deliberation, deeided to establish three 
Normal Sehoole ; one for the north-eastern, one for the south-eastern, 
and one for the western part of the State. Accordingly, one was opened 
at Lexington, in the county of Middlesex, on the 3d day of July, 1839. 
This school, having outgrown its accommodations at Lexington, was re- 
moved to West Newton, in the same county, in Sept., 1844, where it now 
occupies a commodious building. 

The second Normal School was opened at Barre, in the county of 
Worcester, on the 4th day of September, 1839. This school has since 
been removed to Westfield, in the county of Hampden, both on account 
of the insufficiency of the accommodations at Barre, and because the 
latter place is situated east of the centre of population of the western 
counties. 

The third school was opened at Bridgewater, on the 9th day of Sept, 
1840, and is permanently loeated at that place. 

For the two last-named schools, there had been, from the beginning, 
very inadequate school-room accommodations. In the winter of 1845, a 
memorial, on behalf of certain friends of education in the eity of Boston 
and its vicinity, was presented to the Legislature, offering the sum of 
five thousand dollars, to be obtained by private subscriptions, on condition 
that the Legislature would give an equal sum, for the purpose of erecting 
two Normal School-houses ; one for the school at Westfield and one for 
iihat at Bridgewater... By resolves of March 20, 1845; the proposition oi 



X34 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

the memorialists was accepted and the grant made ; and by the same re- 
solves it was ordered, 'that the schools heretofore known as Normal 
Schools, shall be hereafter designated as State Normal Schools.' 

The school at West Newton is appropriated exclusively to females ; 
those at Bridgewater and Westfield admit both sexes. 

Among the standing regulations adopted by the Board, for the govern- 
ment of the State Normal Schools, are the following — most of" which 
were adopted in the beginning, and have been constantly in force ; only a 
few modifications, and those very slight ones, having since been intro- 
duced : 

Admission. As a prerequisite to admission, candidates must declare 
it to be their intention to qualify themselves to become school teachers. 
If they belong to the State, or have an intention and a reasonable ex- 
pectation of keeping school in the State, tuition is gratuitous. Otherwise, 
a tuition-fee is charged, which is intended to be about the same as is 
usually charged at good academies in the same neighborhood. If pupils, 
after having completed a course of study at the State Normal Schools, 
immediately engage in school keeping, but leave the State, or enter a 
private school or an academy, they are considered as having waived the 
privilege growing out of their declared intention to keep a Common 
School in Massachusetts, and are held bound in honor to pay a tuition-fee 
for their instruction. 

If males, pupils must have attained the age of seventeen years com- 
plete, and of sixteen, if females ; and they must be free from any disease 
or infirmity, which would unfit them for the office of school teachers. 

They must undergo an examination, and prove themselves to be well 
versed in orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography 
and arithmetic. 

They must furnish satisfactory evidence of good intellectual capacity 
and of high moral character and principles. 

Examinations for admission take place at the commencement of each 
term, of which there are three in a year. 

Term of Study. At West Newton and Bridgewater, the minimum 
of the term of study is one year, and this must be in consecutive terms 
of the schools. In regard to the school at Westfield, owing to the 
unwillingness of the pupils in that section of the State to remain at the 
school, even for so short a time as one year, the rule requiring a year's 
residence has been from time to time suspended. It is found to be 
universally true, that those applicants whose qualifications are best, are 
desirous to remain at the school the longest. 

Course of Study. The studies first to be attended to in the State 
Normal Schools, are those which the law requires to be taught in the 
district schools, namely, orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, 
geography and arithmetic. When these are mastered, those of a higher 
order will be progressively taken. 

For those who wish to remain at the school more than one year, and 
for all belonging to the school, so far as their previous attainments will 
permit, the following course is arranged: 

1. Orthography, reading, grammar, composition, rhetoric and logic. 

2. Writing and drawing. 

3. Arithmetic, mental and written, algebra, geometry, book-keeping, 
navigation, surveying. 

4. Geography, ancient and modern, with chronology, statistics and 
general history. 

5. Human Physiology, and hygiene or the Laws of Health. 

6. Mental Philosophy. 

7. Music. 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOLS. J 35 

8. Constitution and History of Massachusetts and of the United States. 

9. Natural Philosophy and Astronomy. 

10. Natural History. 

11. The principles of piety and morality, common to all sects of 
Christians. 

12. The science and art of teaching with reference to ail 
the above named studies. 

Religious Exercises. A portion of the Scriptures shall be read 
daily, in every State Normal School. 

Visiters. Each Normal School is under the immediate inspection of 
a Board of Visiters, who are in all cases to be members of the Board of 
Education, except that the Secretary of the Board may be appointed as 
one of the visiters of each school. 

The Board appoints one Principal Instructor for each school, who is 
responsible for its government and instruction, subject to the rules of the 
Board, and the supervision of the Visiters. The Visiters of the respective 
schools appoint the assistant instructors thereof. 

To each Normal School, an Experimental or Model School is attached. 
This School is under the control of the Principal of the Normal School. 
The pupils of the Normal School assist in teaching it. Here, the know- 
ledge which they acquire in the science of teaching, is practically 
applied. The art is made to grow out of the science, instead, of being 
empirical. The Principal of the Normal School inspects the Model 
School more or less, daily. He observes the manner in which his own 
pupils exemplify, in practice, the principles he has taught them. Some- 
times, all the pupils of the Normal School, together with the Principal, 
visit the Model School in a body, to observe the manner in which the . 
teachers of the latter, for the time being, conduct the recitations or exer- 
cises. Then, returning to their own school-room, in company with the 
assistant teachers themselves, who have been the objects of inspection, 
each one is called upon to deliver his views, whether commendatory or 
otherwise, respecting the manner in which the work has been performed. 
At this amicable exposition of merits and defects, the Principal of the 
Normal School presides. After all others have presented their views, he 
delivers his own ; and thus his pupils, at the threshold of their practice, 
have an opportunity to acquire confidence in a good cause, of which they 
might otherwise entertain doubts, and to rectify errors which otherwise 
would fossilize into habit. 

The salaries of the teachers of the State Normal Schools are paic by 
the State." 



136 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plans and Descriptions of the Massachusetts Normal 
School-Houses. 

The following plans and descriptions are copied from the " Tenth Annua] 
Report of the Secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education," with the 
permission of the Hon. Horace Mann, by whose indefatigable labors these 
institutions were founded, seconded as his efforts were by the munificent 
donation of the sum of ten thousand dollars, from the Hon. Edmund Dwight, 
of Boston. 

These buildings were erected partly out of the contribution of $5000, sub- 
scribed originally by the friends of Mr. Mann, as a testimony of their esteem 
for his public services, and, at his suggestion, invested in this way— thus con- 
verging these edifices into the monuments of their generosity, and of his self- 
Wiifiee. 



Bridgewateb State Normal School-House. 
Fig. 1. — Front Elevation. 




This edifice is constructed of wood, and is sixty-four feet by forty-two, and 
two stories in height. The upper story is divided into a principal school 
room, forty-one feet by forty, and two recitation-moms, &r>cr. t-ve.ntj' feat b- 
twelve, and is designed for the N. nnal School. The Lower st*»rjr is" fitted u* 
for a Model School. 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL-HOUSES \ 37 

Bridgewater State Normal School-House. 
Fig. 2. — Lower Story. 



B 



& 



MS H 



D 





■ ■ 


9 1 SB 












































13 






















































f " 






A. 


.A. 


■"""*S 


3) 




- 




*Sp3«i 




^SS^E^ 1 



D, D — Doors, one for males, trie other for females. E, E — Hall-entries, 
into which the doors D, D open, 19 feet by 15. A, A — Stairways, leading 
from the entries to the Normal School-room. M, S, R — Model School-room, 
40 feet by 24, with single seats and desks. H — Entry-way, 6 feet 8 inches 
wide, for Model School scholars. At each end of this entry is an outside 
door, for the entrance of the Model School scholars — a separate entrance for 
each sex. G, F — Laboratory and chemical room, or lecture-room, connected 
by folding doors. The two rooms 40 feet by 16. B, C — Back stairways. 



J 38 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Bridgewater State Normal School-House. 
Fie. 3. — Upper Story. 




A, A— Separate stairways, for the different sexes, leading from the lower 
entries or halls to the Normal School-room. N, S, R— Normal School-room, 
41 feet by 40. c, c, c— Single seats, d, d— Double desks. P, P, P— Teachers- 
platform, e, e. e, e, e — Behind the platform are recesses in the partition for 
a library", e', e— Between R, R, are closets for apparatus. R, R— Recitation- 
rooms, 22 feet by 12. B, C— Back stairways. 



MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL-HOUSES. \ 39 

"Westfifld State Normal School-House. 
Fig. 4.— Front Elevation. 




This edifice is of brick, of the size of sixty-two feet by forty feet, with a 
portico of eight feet at each end of the building, and is two stories in height. 
The Normal School-room is about forty feet square, and is provided with two 
recitation-rooms. The first story is fitted up with a room large enough to 
accommodate a Model School, which is composed of the children of one of 
the districts in the town of Westfield, the district having paid the sum of 
$1500 towards the erection of the building, and being obligated to pay an 
agreed proportion of the expenses of fuel, instraition, &c, 



140 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Westfield State Normal School-House. 
Fig. 5.— Lower Story. 




MASSACHUSETTS STATE NORMAL SCHOOL-HOUSES. 



141 



Westfield State Normal School-House. 
Fig. 6.— Upper Story. 




S, S — Stairways, leading from entry to Normal School-room. N, S, R— 
Normal School-room, 38 feet by 37. e, e — Single seats, d, d— Double desks. 
P, P — Platform, with recesses in the partition behind for a library, c, c— 
Closets for apparatus. R, R— Recitation-rooms, one 22 feet by 11, the other 
22 feet by 10J. 



142 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




Hints respecting Ventilation. 

The annexed section exhibits the mode recommended in the " Minutes of 
the Committee of Council (England) on Education," for regulating a supply 
of fresh air, and providing for the escape of that rendered unfit for respi- 
ration in school-houses with two stories. A, A and G are gratings commu- 
nicating by a passage through 
the external wall into a space 
under the floor, by which cold 
pure air enters at B and D 
through valvular openings in 
the floors into each apartment 
respectively. The extent of 
these openings can be enlarged 
or diminished or entirely closed 
at any time by turning the valve 
or register with which each 
opening should be furnished. 
At C and E the impure air can 
be allowed to escape through 
valvular openings in or near 
the ceiling ; from the lower 
apartment, by means of a flue 
in or along the wall into the 
open space between the upper 
ceiling and roof ; and from the 
upper apartment directly into 
the same space. At F are air 
grates in the ends of the build- 
ing through which the warm gl 
impure air escapes. 

The mode of ventilation, above described and illustrated, can be improved 
by introducing the pure cold air from the atmosphere above the building by 
one of Motfs Receiving Coiols placed on the tdp of a recess of four or six 
inches made in the wall if built of brick, or of a flue or pipe extending from 
the floor to the roof, and discharging it into the room by a valvular opening 
in the floor. The escape of impure air can be hastened 
by placing one or more of Motfs Exhausting Cowls on a 
ventilating flue or flues, leading directly from each apart- 
ment above the roof or from the attic, into which the impure 
air has been discharged. The flues or recess, both for in- 
troducing pure air, and discharging that which has become 
impure should have two openings into the room, one near 
the ceiling and the other at the floor. These flues can be 
constructed without any additional cost for mason work, 
by leaving a recess of 4 inches (in a 12 inch wall) by 20 
inches, and continuing it through the coping on which the 
cowl is placed. The furring for the lath being 1 inch, leaves Receiving Cowl 
a flue of 100 square inches. The beams, floor, and ceiling 
will complete the flue. If the room is warmed by one or 
more stoves, the cold air should be introduced within a few 
inches of the bottom of the stove. The openings into the 
flues should be furnished with valves or doors, and should 
be managed so as to admit the pure cold air to the most 
heated part of the room, and effect the escape from that 
part of the room where the air is most impure. This will 
vary with the mode of heating the room, whether by fire- 
place, stove, or furnace; and from summer to winter. 
The openings for the escape of the vitiated air should be 
so placed as to cause the pure air warmed by contact with 
the stove, or flowing in from a furnace below, to traverse 
the whole apartment. 

Exhausting Cowl. 





VENTILATION. J 43 

The annexed section of one of the Primary School buildings of the Public 
School Society of New York, exhibits the mode of introducing fresh air from 
out of doors, beneath the stove, {a a a,) and the egress of the impure air through 
openings in the ceiling (b b b). Tims a current of pure air is caused to flow 
through the apartment. The combined effect of the two, is represented to be a 
sufficient ventilation of the building where this mode has been adopted, espe- 
cially when aided by Mott's Exhausting Cowl on the top of the ventilating flue. 




The flues under the floor and over the ceiling are covered with cast iron piates 
about twelve inches square, of a light casting, and full of small holes; those in 
the floor plates being less than an eighth of an inch diameter, to spread the 
current of fresh air as it enters the apartment. The holes in the ceiling plates 
are from one fourth to three eighths of an inch in diameter, to facilitate the es- 
cape of the impure air. 

The school-rooms of the Public School Society are generally warmed by wood 
stoves, which are cast with thick plates, so as not to become easily over-heated. 

The result of an experiment in one of the Primary Schools, to heat by 
wood in a furnace, showed that this is not as economical a mode of warming 
these apartments as by wood in stoves, although it is stated that "the ventilation, 
it must be confessed, is more efficient " 

In most of the school-rooms, the ingress of fresh air is secured by lowering 
the upper sash, as is exhibited in the side drawing. 



(44 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Method op Ventilation, by Frederick Emerson. 




Ejecting Ventilator. 



Another method of ventilating buildings has been recently invented by Mr. 
Frederick Emerson, of Boston, which is acquiring very general use in that city 
and its vicinity. In the complete arrangement of his plan, Mr. Emerson em- 
ploys two ventilators, — an Ejector and an Injector, — one to withdraw the im- 
pure air, and the other to introduce fresh air. These ventilators are not 
dependent on a vane, but perform iheir office without changing position, what- 
ever may be the direction of the wind, even if it be inclined or vertical, and 
however fitful its changes. It is the peculiar character of these ventilators, 
that distinguishes his plan, and for them he has obtained letters patent. 

The Ejecting Ventilator consists of a frustrum 
of a cone attached to the top of a tube, open in 
its whole extent, and surmounted by a fender, 
which is supported upon rods, and answers 
the double purpose of keeping out the rain, and 
of so directing and turning a blast of wind upon 
the structure, as that in whatever direction it falls, 
the effect, that of causing a strong upward draft, 
will be very uniform and constant. 

Each of these ventilators is fixed upon the 
upper end of a tube or ventiduct, that pro- 
jects through the roof of the building into the 
open air, and extends downward into the room to 
be ventilated. The ventiduct of the Ejector is 
constructed on one side of the room, opposite the 
side in which the stove or other means of warm- 
ing is placed, and extends from the ceiling to the 
floor. In this ventiduct (here are two apertures 
— one at the ceiling and the other at the floor — for 
the escape of air. The aperture at the floor is 
twice as great as that at the ceiling; and the sum 
of the area of the two apertures is equal to the 
area of the ventiduct. 

The ventiduct of the Injector leads into the 
warm-air chamber of a ventilating stove, or into 
a furnace ; so that, in the cold season, the fresh 
air becomes warm before it enters the room. 

The Ejecting ventilator, without the Injector, 
will, in general, be found sufficient to ventilate a 
school-room. It should, however, be used in con- 
nection with a ventilating stove or furnace, 
through which the quantum of warm air admitted 
into the room is equal to the quantum of air withdrawn from the room. Mr. 
Emerson insists on the admission of warm air into a school-room, as indis- 
pensable to its safe ventilation ; and he enforces his views on this point, by re- 
fusing to allow his ventilators to be put upon any school-house that is not, by 
some means, supplied with fresh warmed air. He objects to the use of all such 
stoves and furnaces as emit their heat through red-hot iron, and recommends that, 
where anthracite coal is used, the stove or furnace in which it is burned, be 
lined with brick or stone. 

The size of the ventilators is made to correspond to the capacity of the 
room. A room containing fifty scholars is found to require an Ejecting ventila- 
tor whose tube is fourteen inches in diameter. A room for one hundred scholars 
requires the tube to be eighteen inches ; and a room for two hundred scholars 
requires it to be twenty-four inches. 

The mode of using Mr. Emerson's Ejecting and Injecting Ventilators, is 
illustrated on page 158 of this Essay, and described in the extracts from the 
"Final Report of the Committee on Ventilation" in the public schools of 
Boston. 




Injecting Ventilator. 



boston mode of ventilation. \ 45 

Methods of Ventilation and Warming, recently introduced 
into the School-Houses of Boston. 

In February, 1846, the School Committee of Boston appointed 
Dr. Henry G. Clark, E. G. Loring, Esq., and Rev. Charles Brooks, 
a Committee "to consider the subject of ventilation of the school- 
houses under the care of this Board, and to report at a future meeting 
some method of remedying the very defective manner in which it 
is now accomplished." The Committee were further " authorized 
to ventilate any three school-houses, in such manner as they may 
deem expedient." Under these instructions, the Committee visited, 
and carefully examined all the school-houses under the care of the 
Board, and instituted a variety of experiments, for the purpose of 
determining on the best method of ventilation, to be generally intro- 
duced. In December, 1846, this Committee made a Report, for a 
copy of which we are indebted to the author, Dr. Clark, by whose 
agency and ingenuity mainly, these great improvements, both in ven- 
tilation and warming, hereafter detailed, have been introduced into 
the Public Schools of Boston. We are also indebted to Dr. Clark 
for the use of the cuts by which this Report, and a subsequent Re- 
port, are illustrated. We shall extract largely from these valuable 
documents, with the permission of the author. It will be seen that 
the views here recommended are substantially the same with those 
presented under the head of Ventilation, in this Treatise. 

" Your Committee desire to call the attention of this Board, chiefly to the con- 
sideration of such general and well established Physiological and Philosophical 
principles, as have a distinct and intimate relation to the subject of tins Re- 
port, and may be useful in its elucidation. 

In doing this^ there are two things of which they hope to satisfy the Board. 

First. The necessity of a system of ventilation, which shall furnish, for all 
the pupils in the Public Schools of Boston, at all times* an abundant supply 
of an atmosphere entirely adapted, in its purity and temperature, to the pur- 
poses of respiration. 

Secondly. The entire failure of the measures heretofore adopted to accom- 
plish this desirable end. 

The function of Respiration, is that process, by whose agency and constant 
operation, atmospheric air is admitted to the internal surface of the lungs, and 
there brought into close contact with the blood, for the purpose of effecting 
certain changes in it, which are essential to the continuance of life, and to 
maintain the integrity of the bodily organs. During this process, the atmos- 
phere is constantly losing its oxygen, which is carried into the circulation, 
while, at the same time, it is becoming overcharged with the carbonic acid 
gas, which is continually thrown off from the lungs by respiration. This effete 
and deadly poison spreads itself rapidly into all parts of the room. 

' M. Lassaigne has shown, by a series of investigations, that, contrary to a. 
common opinion, the air in a room which has served for respiration without 
being renewed, contains carbonic acid alike in every part, above as well as be- 
low; the difference in proportion is but slight ; and, where appreciable, there 
is some reason to believe that the carbonic acid is in greater quantity in the 
upper parts of a room. These experiments establish the very important fact, that 
all the air of a room must be changed, in order to restore its purity.'* 

Dr. Wyman makes the following remarks on this point : ' Although carbonic 

acid is a much heavier gas than atmospheric air, it does not, from this cause, 

fall to the floor, but is equally diffused through the room. If the gas is formed 

ob the floor without change of temperature, this diffusion may not take place 

"Silliman's Journal for September, 1846. 

10 



146 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

rapidly. In the celebrated Grotto del Cane, carbonic acid escapes from the floor, 
and rises to a certain height, which is pretty well defined to the sight on the 
walls; below this line, a dog is destroyed, as if in water; above it, he is not 
affected. An analysis of the air above and below a brazier has been made, 
and it was found equally contaminated, — the former containing 4.65 per cent., 
and the latter 4.5 per cent, of carbonic acid. 

' From the experiments of M. Devergie, who has devoted much attention 
to the poisonous effects of these gasses, it appears, that the heat disengaged 
from the combustion of charcoal, produces an equable mixture at all eleva- 
tions in the apartment ; and this state of things continues as long as the room 
remains warm ; but after twelve hours or more, the carbonic acid sinks, and 
while that near the ceiling contains only a seventy-eighth, that near the floor 
contains nearly four times as much, or a nineteenth.' (See Prac. Trea. p. 77.) 

If further proof be needed, to establish this position, we have other testimony. 
During respiration, a considerable quantity of vapor is discharged from the 
lungs. With regard to this, Mr. Tredgold says : ' if the air did not contain 
this mixture of vapor, it would not rise when expelled ; and we have to ad- 
mire one of those simple and beautiful arrangements, by which our all-wise 
Creator has provided against the repeated inhalation of the same air ; for a 
mixture of azote, carbonic acid gas, and vapor, at the temperature it is eject- 
ed, is much lighter than common air even at the same temperature. Hence, it 
rises with such velocity, that it is entirely removed from us before it becomes 
diffused in the atmosphere. But as all gaseous bodies and vapors intimately 
mix when suffered to remain in contact, we see how important it is that venti- 
lation should be continual ; that the noxious gasses should be expelled as soon 
as generated ; and that the ventilation should be from the upper part of a 
room.' (S e Tredgold on Warming, fyc, p. 70. 

If, to the foul efnuvia ejected from the lungs, and accumulating in an apart- 
ment as badly ventilated as one of our school-rooms, be added the fouler 
matter thrown into the air from the insensible perspiration of so many individuals, 
many of whom are of uncleanly habits in person and apparel, it is apparent, that, 
in a very limited period of time, the air, in a perfectly close room, would become 
so entirely unfit for respiration, that, to all who were exposed to its influence, 
submersion in water could not be more certainly fatal. 

The terrible effects of continued exposure to carbonic acid gas in a concen- 
trated form, have been graphically described by Howard, in his account of the 
Black Hole of Calcutta. Of one hundred and forty-six persons, shut up in 
this place for only ten hours, without any other means of ventilation than one 
small opening, but twenty-six were found alive, when it came to be opened ; 
and most of these suffered afterward from malignant fevers. 

The fainting of feeble persons in crowded assemblies, and the asphyxia, so 
often produced in those who descend into deep wells without suitable precau- 
tion, are familiar examples of the same noxious effects of this poison. 

In has been usually estimated, that every individual, by respiration, and the 
various exhalations from the body, consumes or renders unfit for use, at least 
from four to five cubic feet of air per minute. This is probably a low esti- 
mate ; but authors of good repute differ considerably on this point. Mr. Tred- 
gold's remarks, in this connection, are interesting and pertinent. ' The Phys- 
iological Chemists,' says he, ' have placed in our hands a more accurate 
means of measuring the deterioration of air in dwelling rooms, than by the 
best eudiometer : for they have shown, by repeated experiments on respira- 
tion, that a man consumes about thirty-two cubic inches of oxygen in a minute, 
which is replaced by an equal bulk of carbonic acid from the lungs. Now, 
the quantity of oxygen in atmospheric air is about one fifth ; hence it will be 
found, that the quantity rendered unfit for supporting either combustion or ani- 
mal life, by one man, in one minute, is nearly one hundred and sixty cubic 
inches, by respiration only. But a man makes twenty respirations in a minute, 
and draws in and expels forty inches of air at each respiration; consequently, 
the total quantity contaminated in one minute, by passing through the lungs, is 
eight hundred cubic inches.'* The other sources of impurity, which should 
be considered, will increase the estimate to the amount above stated. The 
amount of vapor discharged from the lungs, and thus added to the impurities 
of the air, is said to exceed six grains per minute. It has also been shown 
'Tredgold on Warming, &c, p. 69 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 147 

that air, which has been some time in contact with the skin, becomes almost 
entirely converted into carbonic acid. 

In estimating the amount of fresh air to be supplied, we ought not merely to 
look at what the system will tolerate, but that amount which will sustain the 
highest state of health for the longest time. Dr. Reid recommends at least ten 
cubic feet per minute, as a suitable average supply for each individual ; and 
states that his estimate is the result of an ' extreme variety of experiments, 
made on hundreds of different constitutions, supplied one by one with given 
amounts of air, and also in numerous assemblies and meetings, where there 
were means for estimating the quantity of air with which they were pro- 
vided.' (Illustrations of Ventilation, p. 116.) 

These calculations refer to adults ; but the greater delicacy of the organiza- 
tion of children, and their feebler ability to resist the action of deleterious 
agents, together with their greater rapidity of respiration, demand for them at 
least an equal supply. Proceeding upon this basis, and multiplying the amount 
required per minute, by the minutes of a school session of three hours, we 
have eighteen hundred cubic feet for each pupil, and for two hundred and fifty 
pupils — the average maximum attendance in one of our large school-rooms, — 
450,000 cubic feet, as the requisite quantity for each half-day. The rooms 
contain about 22,500 cubic feet only : so that a volume of air, equal to the 
whole cubic contents of each room, should be supplied and removed, in some 
way, ten times every three hours, in order to sustain the atmosphere in them at 
a point which is perfectly wholesome and salubrious. For such a purpose, 
the present means are so entirely inadequate, that it was found that the air of a 
room became tainted in ten or fifteen minutes. In ordinary cases, four per 
cent, of the air expelled from the lungs is carbonic acid. The presence of five 
or six per cent, will extinguish a lamp, and with difficulty support life. It is 
therefore certain, that the air would become deprived of all its best properties 
in one school session. 

Le Blanc, — who examined many public and private buildings, in France 
and elsewhere, — speaking of the Chamber of Deputies, where sixty-four cubic 
feet of fresh air per minute, were alloAved to each individual, states, that ol 
10,000 parts escaping by the ventilator, twenty-five were carbonic acid ; whik 
the quantity of this gas ordinarily present in the atmosphere, is but foTnnr 
Dr. Reid states, that he never gave less than thirty cubic feet of air a minute, 
to each member of the House of Commons, when the room was crowded; and 
once he introduced, for weeks successively, sixty cubic feet a minute, to each 
member. 

The very earliest impressions received by your Committee, in their visits to 
the school-houses, satisfied them of their lamentable condition in regard to 
ventilation. In some of them, they found the air so bad, that it could be per-, 
ceived before reaching the school-rooms, and in the open entries ; and the chil- 
dren, as they passed up and down the stairs, had their clothes and hair percep- 
tibly impregnated with the fostid poison. And these circumstances existed in 
houses, where the open windows testified, upon our entrance, that the Masters 
had endeavored to improve the atmosphere by all the means placed at their 
disposal. To this custom, — that of opening windows in school .hours, — the In- 
structors are compelled to resort, for relief; and this expedient, certainly, is the 
lesser of two very great evils. Your Committee found in their visits to the 
school-houses, during the severest days of last winter, that no school-room 
had less than three, and that more than half of them had at least seven windows 
open for the admission of pure air. Yet this dangerous and injurious practice 
only mitigates the evils of bad air, by creating others. It produces colds and 
inflammatory complaints, and the air still remains impure, offensive, and 
highly deleterious ; sufficiently so, to affect the delicate organization of child- 
hood, to blight its elasticity, and destroy that healthful physical action, on 
which depends the vigor of maturer years. 

We have already referred to some of the more violent and sudden effects of ex- 
posure to air highly charged with these noxious gasses. There are others, which 
are more remote, and, to a superficial observer, less noticeable. But they are 
not, therefore, of less importance. The grave consequences of a long-contin- 
ued exposure to an atmosphere but a little below the standard of natural 
purity, although not immediately incompatible with life, can hardl , be over- 



.43 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



stated. These effects are often so insidious in their approach, as hardly to at- 
tract notice ; they are therefore the more necessary to be provided against in 
advance. 

Children, confined in the atmosphere of these schools, soon lose the ruddy 
and cheerful complexions of perfect health which belong to youth, and acquire 
the sallow and depressed countenances which might reasonably be expected in 
over-worked factory operatives, or the tenants of apartments unvisited by the 
sun or air. We noticed in many faces, also, particularly towards the close of 
a school session, a feverish flush, so bright that it might easily deceive an in- 
experienced eye, and be mistaken for a healthy bloom. Alas ! it was only a 
transient and ineffectual effort of nature to produce, by overaction, those salu- 
tary changes which she really wanted the fencer to accomplish. 

The condition of the pupils, depressed as they are by these influences, is 
constantly demanding increased exertions from their Instructors, while the re- 
quirements of the age place the standard of education at an elevation suffi- 
ciently difficult of access under the most favorable circumstances. 

Your committee are satisfied, therefore, that the present state of the school- 
houses daily impairs the health of the pupils and Instructors, and the efficiency 
of the schools for the purposes of instruction. That its continuance will pro- 
duce, not only immediate discomfort and disease, but, by its effect on the con- 
stitutions of the children, who must pass in them a large portion of those 
years most susceptible to physical injury, will directly and certainly reduce 
the amount of constitutional vigor hereafter to be possessed by that large mass 
of our population, which now and hereafter is to receive its education in these 
schools. 

Although the atmosphere in the different school-houses varied very much in 
particular cases, either owing to the time of the visits, or from the amount of 
attention and intelligence of the Masters, yet in none of them was it at all sat- 
isfactory ; not one of them was furnished with any useful or systematic means 
of ventilation. Every one, in order to be kept in a tolerably comfortable con- 
dition in this respect, required the frequent and laborious attention of the In- 
structors, and often to a degree which must have seriously interfered with their 
legitimate duties. 

All of the rooms are provided with registers, in or near the ceiling, ostensi- 
bly for the purpose of discharging the foul air, but which your Committee be- 
lieve to be almost entirely useless. The openings through the roof into the 
open air, where they exist, are so small, as to be quite inadequate to relieve the 
attics ; so that the bad air must accumulate there, and, after becoming condensed 
be gradually forced back again, to be breathed over by the same lungs 
which have already rejected it. The condition of the apartments, after under- 
going a repetition of such a process, for any length of time, can easily be 
imagined." 

A reference to the subjoined diagram will explain at once the present state 
of the Ventilation of the School-Houses. 



a. Heated air from furnace. 

b. Hot air escaping through 
open window. 

c. Cold air entering through 
open window. 




BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 149 

It may be a matter of surprise, to some, perhaps, that the subject of ventila- 
ting our school-rooms has not long ago received the consideration necessary 
. to remedy, or even to have prevented altogether, the evils of which we at pres- 
ent complain. But these evils have not always existed. It should be recol- 
lected, that the stoves and furnaces now in common use, are of comparatively 
modern date; and moreover, that the ample fireplaces, which they have dis- 
placed, always proved perfectly efficient ventilators, although, it is true, some- 
what at the expense of comfort and fuel. But in closing the fireplaces, and sub- 
stituting more economical methods of warming, evils of far greater magnitude 
have been entailed upon us. 

It is evident, that, in order to carry into operation any complete system of 
ventilation, there must be connected with it some apparatus to regulate the 
temperature of the air to be admitted, as well as to ensure its ample supply. 
Your committee have accordingly examined, with much care, this part of the 
subject. A majority of the buildings are furnished with ' hot-air furnaces,' 
situated in the cellars ; the remainder with stoves, placed in the school-rooms 
themselves. Most of the furnaces possess great heating powers, — indeed much 
greater than is necessary, if the heat generated by them were properly econo- 
mized, or could be made available ; — but, as now constructed, they are almost 
worse than useless, consuming large quantities of fuel, and, at the same time, so 
overheating the air which passes through them, as to deprive it of some of its 
best qualities, and render it unsuitable for respiration. It is difficult to define, 
with precision, and by analysis, the changes which take place in air subjected 
to the action of metallic surfaces, at a high temperature. The unpleasant 
dryness of the air can be detected, very readily, by the senses ; and the head- 
ache, and other unpleasant sensations, experienced by those who breathe such 
an atmosphere, would seem to prove a deficiency of oxygen and electricity. 
The rapid oxydation and destruction of the ironwork of the furnaces them- 
selves, also tends to confirm this supposition. _ 

It has been ascertained, by repeated examinations, that the temperature of 
the air, when it arrives at the rooms, is often as high as 50(P and 6003 Fahren- 
heit. Of course, it is entirely impossible to diffuse air, thus heated, in the 
parts of the room occupied by the pupils. Much of it passes rapidly out of the 
windows, which may be open; the rest to the ceiling, where it remains until 
partially cooled, gradually finding its way down by the walls and closed win- 
dows, to the lower parts of the room. The consequences are, that, while 
much more caloric is sent into the apartment than is requisite, many of the 
pupils are compelled to remain in an atmosphere which is at once cold and 
stagnant. 

The source of the cold air for supplying the furnaces, is not always free 
from objection ; some being drawn from the neighborhood of drains, cesspools, 
&c. This is a radical defect, as it must inevitably affect the whole air of the 
building. The boxes, which admit the cold air to the furnaces, are much too 
contracted ; some of them being only a few inches square, when their capacity 
ought to be nearly as many feet. The air enters the ' cold-air ' chamber of 
the furnace, at its top, whence it is intended to be carried down between thin 
brick walls, (which should be cold, but which are often heated to 3003 Fahren- 
heit,) to the lower part of the furnace, and thence into the ' hot-air ' chambers, 
and so on to the rooms above. It is obvious that the 'hot-air' chamber 
must be heated to a temperature far beyond that of the ' cold-air ' chamber, in 
order to compel the air, against its own natural tendencies, to pass into it with 
any velocity or volume, and the very attempt to accomplish this, almost de- 
feats itself; as, by driving the fire for this purpose, the ' cold-air ' chamber be- 
comes still hotter, so that at last the contest is decided only by the greater cal- 
orific capabilities which the iron plates possess over the brick wall. At any 
rate, the temperature of the iron is frequently raised to a red and even a 
white heat, by running the furnaces in the ordinary way. This soon destroys 
them, and they require consequently to be frequently renewed. In addition to 
all this waste of fuel and material, the folly of attempting, in any way, to 
warm school-rooms whose windows are freely opened to the admission of an 
atmosphere, at the low temperature of our winter climate, may well claim a 
oassing notice. 



150 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The following diagrams will exhibit the mode in which the two houses al- 
ready referred to, are now ventilated. 

Plan of the Ventilation of the Eliot School-House. 



a. a. Cold air channels to 
furnaces. 

b. b. Heated air. 

The arrows show the cur- 
rents of air from the furnaces 
to the outlet at the roof. 

c. Gas burner. 




This house was entirety without any external opening through the roof. 
The other arrangements in it presented nothing peculiar. The ' exits and the 
entrances ' were all as deficient in capacity as usual. The first care was to 
perforate the roof. This was accordingly done, and an opening of sufficient 
size made to carry a turn-cap of two and a half feet in diameter in its smallest 
part. The cold-air shaft, with an area of only one hundred and forty square 
inches, was enlarged so as to measure six hundred, or about four times its for- 
mer size. The necessary repairing of one furnace, gave us an opportunity to 
enlarge its air-chamber very considerably. Water, for evaporation, was placed 
within a chamber of the furnace. The registers in the rooms opening into the 
attic, being below the ceiling, were raised to the highest point, and increased 
in size. 

Although we think the want of connection of the cowl at the roof with the 
registers from the rooms by closed tubes, a decided disadvantage, we were sat- 
isfied, on the whole, with the results ; as the alterations gave great relief. 
These changes were made during the month of February, 1846, and the only 
inconvenience suffered during the winter, was the occasional rise of the 
temperature to five or ten degrees beyond the desired point. The atmosphere 
has lost its bad odor almost entirely, and is of course much more agreeable. 
A gas burner has lately been placed in the throat of the ventilator, for use 
when extra power is needed. 

Plan op the Ventilation op the Endicott School-House. 



This house, as well as the preceding, was heated by furnaces in the cellar, 
one for each room. Its ventilating flaes were arranged in a better manner thau 
usual, opening into little separate chimneys which pierced the roof near the 
copings. But they had proved to be insufficient, both on account of their size 
and situation. They were also affected sensibly by down-gusts, which com- 
pletely reversed their action in certain states of the atmosphere and wind, 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 



151 



a. a. Currents of heated air 
passing to the ventilating flues. 

b. b. Cold air channels. 

c. c. Cold air valves opening 
upon the hot-air currents. 

F. F. Furnaces. 
<§. Stove in ventilator in the 
attic. 




After enlarging the cold-air shaft to a proper size, it was thought best, (as the 
hot-air pipe passed through the brick wall, so that it could not easily be altered,) 
to make an opening through the outer wall directly behind the register which 
delivered the hot-air into the room. An aperture of sixteen inches square, 
commanded by a revolving damper, was therefore cut. It has been found to 
answer exceedingly well; as we now get a much larger volume, of more tem- 
perate and purer air. 

For the delivery of the bad air, the following arrangements were adopted. 
Large wooden boxes, or air-shafts, were carried from the floor of each story 
into the attic, where they communicate, by closed metal pipes of the same size, 
with a tin cylinder, three feet in diameter, which is continued to the roof, ter- 
minating there in a large cowl. There are openings, at the top and bottom of 
each room, into the ventilating shafts, which can be used separately, or 
together, as the state of the atmosphere requires. 

An air-tight coal stove, placed within the drum, in the attic, completes the 
apparatus. This has been only recently constructed ; but from results already 
produced, there is no doubt of its entire ability to accomplish all that is 
desirable. 

The same general statements which have been made with regard to the 
Grammar School-houses, will apply to the Primary School-houses. They are 
undoubtedly in as bad a condition, to say the least; and from their smaller ca- 
pacities in proportion to the number of pupils which they contain, require 
particular attention. 

For ventilation of these, and the Recitation rooms, which resemble them in 
structure and size, your Committee recommend the use of the double fireplace* 
or the Ventilating Stove, which will be hereafter described. If the latter be 
used, ventilating flues, opening at the ceiling, must be carried out of the roof. 

It only remains for your Committee to describe, more particularly, the system 
of ventilation which they consider to be, in its general features, best adapted 
for the school-houses under the care of the Board. Much of it has al- 
ready been anticipated in other parts of this Report; and the following 
plan will show, at a glance, better than any description can do, its particular 
features. 



: See page 38 of this Essay for a diagram and description. 



152 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Diagram showing the best general plan for warming and ventilating 
the Grammar School-Houses. 




a. a. Cold-air channel, three feet in diameter, opening underneath tne 
Furnace. 

F. Furnace, three feet in diameter in a brick chamber ten feet square. 
The walls twelve inches thick. 

d. Smoke flue, surmounted with Mr. Tredgold's chimney top. 

b. b. b. b. Currents of warmed air, passing from the furnace, through a main 
flue of four feet in diameter, which supplies two branch flues. From these the 
air is diffused into all parts of the room, by means of the tablets which are 
placed over the mouths of the registers. 

e. The ventilating shaft, two and a half feet in diameter, into which the 
foul gasses are collected, and from which they are finally discharged into the 
open air. 

c. An Argand Lamp, to be lighted from the attic. 

r. r. r. Registers, by means of which the whole circulation is controlled. 
The Committee recommend attention to the following general rules for Ven- 
tilation and Warming. 

1. The air must be taken from a pure source. The higher parts of the 
building are the best, as thereby all impurities, which often contaminate air 
taken from near the surface of the ground, are avoided. 

2. In order to ensure a constant and abundant supply, the air shaft must be 
surmounted with a cowl or hood of some kind, with its mouth turned towards 
the wind. 

3. The fresh air should in all cases be carried entirely beneath the fumaee* 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 



153 



If the cellar is wet and the situation low, the underground culvert or channel 
should be of brick, laid in cement. 

4. The furnace chamber should be so large that it can be entered at any 
time, without the necessity of taking down walls, for the purpose of repairs, or 
to observe the temperature. A large earthen pan for the evaporation of water 
should never be omitted. This should be kept always perfectly clean, and the 
water required to be frequently changed. 

5. A thermometer should be constantly at hand, and the temperature in the 
warm-air chamber should never be allowed to exceed that of boiling water. A still 
lower temperature is often desirable. If this point is'secured, the hot air can 
be conducted with perfect safety under floors, or into any part of the building, 
for its better diffusion. 

6. The openings for the admission of the warm air into the rooms, should be 
as numerous as possible. The long platform occupied by the teachers, by being 
perforated in front for its whole length, would be an excellent diffusing surface. 

7. Openings of ample size must be made in the highest points of the ceiling, 
to be connected at the top of the roof with a turn-cap or louvre, the former 
being always surmounted with a vane. It is better that the ceiling should be 
perforated at its centre, and there is no objection to running the ventilating 
shaft, at first, horizontally, if the perpendicular and terminal portion of it is of 
considerable length. 

8. It is highly important to have a power of some sort, within the apparatus at its 
top, for the purpose of compelling constant action, and of increasing the force of 
the apparatus, whenever the state of the weather, or the crowding of the room, 
render it necessary.* For this purpose, the most convenient and economical 
means are furnished by a gas burner, an Argand lamp, or a stove; and one of 
these should be in cons.am leadiness for use, when neither the velocity of the 
wind, or the low temperature of the external aimosphere are sufficient to pro- 
duce the desired effect. 

9. All the openings and flues for the admission of pure air, and the discharge 
of the foul air, should be of the maximum size; that is, they should be calculated 
for the largest numbers which the apartment is ever intended to accommodate. 

10. Valves must be placed in all the flues, and so arranged as to be easily 
regulated without leaving the rooms into which they open. 

11. The best average temperature for school-rooms, is from 64° to 68° 
Fahrenheit; this range including that of the healthiest climates in their best 
seasons. 

For the purpose of summer ventilation, and for occasional use in moderate 
weather, fireplaces of good size should be constructed in all the new houses, at 
least. They should always be double, and furnished with large air chambers, 
which communicate with the open air. When not in use, they must be closed 
with tight boards or shutters, as they would otherwise interfere with the regular 
ventilation. 

With these arrangements, intelligently controlled by the Teachers, your 
Committee believe that an atmosphere will be secured which will be perfectly 
agreeable and salubrious ; which will lighten the labors of the Teachers, and 
promote the comfort, health, and happiness, of the thousands of children who 
are daily congregated in our Public Schools." 

This Report was received, and the same Committee were " directed 
to adapt to each school-room such apparatus, if any, as may be re- 
quired to secure to them proper ventilation in winter and summer, 
and to make such alterations and arrangements of the furnaces as 
may be required." To be able to execute this order, the Committee 
applied to the City Authorities for an appropriation of $4,000, which 
was readily granted, after an examination by a Joint Committee of 
the Board of Aldermen and Common Council, of the school-houses 
in which the improved ventilating apparatus had been introduced. 
The following is an extract from the Report of the Joint Committee t 

* This in practice has not been found necessary, although it may be sometimes. 



154 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

" In order to be fully satisfied, the Committee visited the Endicott School, 
where the apparatus was in operation. The day was exceedingly wet and dis- 
agreeable, and yet the air of the rooms was found in an unobjectionable condi- 
tion. The masters fully sustained the representations of the petitioners ; and 
from their statements, as well as from their own observations, the Committee 
were satisfied of the beneficial effects of said apparatus. 

In order, however, to have a more full investigation of the matter, the Com- 
Taittee, on a subsequent day, visited the Johnson School and the Boylston 
School. The day was dry and cold, and they found the air in the Johnson 
School in a tolerably good condition. This is a girls' school; and it is well 
Known that the pupils in such schools are neater, and attend in cleaner and 
more tidy apparel, than the pupils in the boys' schools. 

In the Boylston School, however, the Committee found the air very disagree- 
able and oppressive ; and they could not but feel the importance of executing 
some plan of relief." 

If the Committee of Ways and Means, — or whatever the money- 
compelling power may be called — in every city, and town, and dis- 
trict, would satisfy themselves by actual examination, of the necessity 
of a more perfect system of ventilation in all school-rooms, or in all 
public halls where a large number of human beings are congregated 
for a considerable length of time, and where fires or lamps are 
burning, a reform would be speedily introduced in this respect. 

With the means thus placed at their disposal, the Committee 
applied themselves diligently to the duty of ventilating the school- . 
houses — and at the close of the year, they had the satisfaction of 
announcing in their Final Report, " that the Grammar School-houses 
of Boston are now in a better condition in respect to their ventilation, 
than any other Public Schools in the world." The Committee thus 
sum up the results of their labors. 

"The diversity of arrangement and the modifications in our plans which we 
have been compelled by circumstances to adopt, have had their advantages, and 
enabled us to arrive at the best results, and to satisfy ourselves entirely in re- 
gard to the particular set of apparatus which we can recommend with confi- 
dence for future use as decidedly the most effective and convenient. We have 
therefore furnished drawings and specifications of the set of apparatus which 
we recommend. 

CMlson's Furnace. 

Your Committee have made themselves acquainted not only with all the 
Furnaces which have been manufactured in this place, and its neighborhood, 
but with all those which have been exhibited here recently. Most of them 
show much ingenuity of contrivance and excellence of workmanship ; but are 
all, so far as we can judge, inferior in many respects, to the one invented by 
Mr. Chilson, a model and plans of which we now exhibit, and recommend as 
superior to all others. 

It is simple in its structure, easily managed, will consume the fuel perfectly, 
and with a moderate fire. It is fitted for wood or coal. The fire place is broad 
and shallow, and is lined with soapstone or fire-brick, which not only makes it 
perfectly safe and durable, but modifies very materially the usual effect of the 
fire upon the iron pot. 

The principal radiating surfaces are wrought iron, of a suitable thickness 
for service, while at the same time the heat of the smallest fire is communi- 
cated immediately to the air chamber. The mode of setting this Furnace we 
consider essential ; more especially the plan of admitting the air to the furnace 
at its lowest point, as it then rises naturally into the apartments above. This 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 155 

process commences as soon as the temperature is raised even a single degree. 
The outer walls remain cold ; the floor above is not endangered, and the whole 
building is rapidly filled with an atmosphere which is at once salubrious and 
delightful. 




Section of Chilson's Furnace. 





Section. 

Ventilating Stove. 

For the houses which we found without the Hot Air Furnaces, as also lor 
the Recitation and other single rooms, the invention of a Stove which shoul 



156 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



answer the same purpose became essential. One was therefore contrived ; ana 
having been found in its earlier and ruder forms to be of great utility, it has 
since been improved in its appearance, as well as in the convenience of its 
management. 

These Stoves are composed of two cylinders, the inner containing a fire 
chamber, which is lined with soap-stone or fire brick, while the outer consti- 
tutes a chamber for warming the air, which is introduced into it beneath the 
inner cylinder, from an air box directly connected with the external atmos- 
phere. 

They possess the following advantages : — 

1. They are in fact furnaces, having distinct and capacious air chambers. 

2. They insure, when properly set, that supply of fresh air which is indis- 
pensable to the proper ventilation of any apartment. 

3. The Regulating Distributor, which is movable or fixed, as may be de- 
sired, determines with great accuracy the amount and temperature of the 
admitted air. 

4. The outer cylinder is never hot enough to burn the person or clothing, or 
to be uncomfortable to those who are situated in its immediate vicinity. 

5. They are constructed with the utmost regard to efficiency, durability, 
compactness, and neatness of appearance. 

These Stoves have been furnished to the Schools whenever your Committee 
have required their use, and at manufacturers' prices, without any profit what- 
ever to the inventor and patentee. 

They may be used with advantage in the largest rooms, when the cellars are 
unfit for Furnaces, or when it is preferred to have the fire in the room itself. 
The Johnson, Wells, Hawes, and Winthrop School-houses are warmed entirely 
by them. 

The discharging ventiducts have been made in various ways; some of wood, 
some of metal, and others of ' lath and plaster.' Some have opened at the 
ceiling only, and in but one part of the room, while others have been equally 
divided at opposite sides of the apartment. Our rule is this: — If the Heating 
Apparatus is at one end of an oblong room, the ventiduct is placed at the op- 
posite. If the stove or furnace flue is at the middle of the longest side, the 
ventiducts are placed at each end, and are of course reduced to one half the 
size of the single one. 

The best manner of constructing them is shown by the drawing. Fig. 1, and 
described on the following page. 

There is great economy in carrying the boxes to the floor in all cases. In 
i his way the room can be kept warm and the air pure in the coldest and most 
windy days. 

The registers at the top and bottom can be used separately or together, as 
may be desired. 

It is necessary and advantageous to apply some kind of cap or other covering 
upon the ventiducts where they terminate above the roof. It is necessary as a 
protection from the rain and the down blasts of wind, and it is also very advan- 
tageous to be enabled in this way to avail our- 
selves of the power of the wind to create an active 
upward current. We used at first the turncap 
or cowl invented by Mr. Espy, and with satisfac- 
tory results. It is undoubtedly the best movable 
top known; but is noisy, and somewhat liable to 
get out of working order. These objections to 
the movable tops have long been known, and va- 
rious stationary tops have been invented, and have 
been partially successful. An improved Stationary 
Top, or Ejecting Ventilator, as it is called, has 
been invented during the past year by Mr. Em- 
erson. It is shown in the drawing, and consists 
of the frustrum of a cone attached to the top of a 
tube, open in its whole extent, and surmounted 
by a fender which is supported upon rods, and 
answers the double purpose of keeping out the rain 
and of so directing or turning a blast of wind upon the structure, as that in what- 




Ejecting Ventilator. 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 



157 



ever direction it falls, the effect, that of causing a strong upward draft, will be 
very uniform and constant. 

Being satisfied that this Stationary Ejector possessed all the advantages of 
the best, tops hitherto known, without the disadvantages of either of them, we 
bave adopted it for several of the houses last ventilated, and find it in all re- 
spects satisfactory. We therefore recommend it for general use. 

The Injector may generally be dispensed Avith, 
but in situations unfavorable for introducing air, 
it may be sometimes found convenient, or even 
necessary. [Mr. Emerson recommends the use 
of the Injector, whenever a ventilating stove or 
furnace is used, so as to secure the admission of 
a quantity of pure air, warmed by the heating 
surfaces of the stove or furnace, equal to the 
quantity of air rendered impure by respiration 
withdrawn by the Ejector. He refuses to allow 
his ventilators to be placed upon any school-house 
which is not supplied with fresh warm air."] 



Injecting Ventilators. 




Ventiducts. 



The discharging ventiducts should be situated at the part of the rooms most 
distant from the stove or register of the furnace, and should always, if possi- 
ble, be constructed in or upon an interior wall or partition, and an outer brick 
wall must, if possible, be avoided. They should be made of thoroughly sea- 
soned sound pine boards, smoothed on the inner sides, and put together with 
two-inch iron screws. The outside finish may be of lath and plaster, or they 
may be projected backwards into a closet or entry, as shown in Figure 3. 
They must be carried entirely to the floor, and should be fitted at the top and 
bottom with a swivel blind, whose capacity is equal to that of the ventiduct into 
which it opens. This blind may be governed by stay rods or pulleys. The 
elevation gives a view of the ventiducts for a building of three stories, 
and shows the best mode of packing them, so as to avoid injuring the ap- 
pearance of the rooms. 

These ventiducts must be kept entirely separate to the main discharger at the 
roof, as any other arrangement would impair or destroy their utility. 

The size of the ventilators and ventiducts must correspond to the capacity 
of the room, and the number it is intended to accommodate. 

A room containing sixty scholars is found to require a discharging duct of 
fourteen inches in diameter. A room for one hundred scholars requires the 
tube to be eighteen inches ; and a room for two hundred scholars requires it to 
be twenty-four inches. 

The fresh air ventiducts should exceed in capacity those for carrying off" the 
impure" air by about fifty percent; so that there will then always be a sur- 
plus or plenum supply, and the little currents of cold which press in at the 
crevices of the doors and windows will be entirely prevented. 

The section shown in Fig. 3 exhibits a very convenient mode of bringing the 
cold air to the ventilating stoves in a three story building in connection with 
the smoke flues. 



158 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Figure 1. Figure 2. 





W,v h 



Elevation of Ventiducts. 



a. Cold air ducts, 
d. Smoke flues 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. 



159 



The following section, (Fig. 3,) and plans (Fig's. 4 and 5,) exhibit at one 
view an example of a building of two stories warmed and ventilated by the 
apparatus and in the manner recommended. 



Figure 3. 




A. Chilson's Furnace. 

B. The Boston School Stove. 

C. Emerson's Ejector. 

a. Cold or fresh air ducts. 

b. Warmed air ducts. 

c. Impure air ducts. 

d. Smoke flues. 



Che letters on the plans correspond to those in the section. 



160 



SCHOOL-HOUSE ARCHITECTURE. 



Plans of First and Second Floors. 
Figure 4. 




Second Floor. 

A. Furnace, a. a. a. Fresh air ducts, b. b. b. Warm air registers, 
c. c. c. Impure air ducts. / 

The modes of ventilation and heating above described and illus 
trated, were unanimously approved by the school committee, and 
recommended to the city government, for introduction into the 
school-houses which may be hereafter erected. 



BOSTON MODE OF VENTILATION. jgj 

The Committee append to their Report directions for the manage- 
ment of the Stoves, Furnaces and Ventiducts, to which they request 
the attention of the masters of the Public Schools, in conformity to 
the rule of the Board, which requires their attention to the Ventilation 
of the School-houses under their care. 

Rules relative to the use of the Stoves, Furnaces and Ventilators. 

1. To kindle the fire. — Close the upper, and open the lower registers of the 
ventiducts; close the upper door of the stove or furnace and open the lower 
door; place the cover of the stove one or two inches up. 

2. After the room becomes warm — Raise the cover of the stove three or five 
inches ; close the lower door of the stove and open the upper door ; open the 
registers of the ventiducts about half their width. 

3. If the room become too ivarm — Open the registers full width, and raise the 
cover of the stove high up, keeping the upper door of the stove or furnace open, 
and the lower door closed. 

4. If the room become too cool — Close the upper registers, (for a short time 
only;) close the upper door of the stove and open the lower door; drop the 
cover down within two inches of the sides. 

5. Never close the top of the stove entirely down, while there is any fire 
therein. 

6. At night, on leaving the room, let the cover of the stove down within one 
inch of the sides ; close the lower door, and open the upper one ; place all the 
registers open about half their width. 

7. Fill the water basins every morning, and wash them twice a w T eek. 

The fires should be kept, if possible, through the night, by covering the coal. 
The coal to be white ash. 

Construction of Ventiducts. 

Since the first edition of this work was published, the following note 
has been received from Dr. Clark, in relation to the structure of the dis- 
charging ventiducts. 

Boston, Feb. 12th, 1849. 

Henry Barnard. Esq. : 

My Dear Sir,— Will you allow me to ask your attention to a single matter relating 
to ventilation? I refer to the construction, situation, and proper materials of the venti- 
ducts which are intended to carry off the foul air. In almost all instances within my 
knowledge, excepting in the buildings in this place, which have been ventilated within 
tw r o or three years past, these discharging ducts are made of brick or stone, being often, 
therefore, also built in the outer wall. If there is any peculiar advantage in our school- 
house ventilation, its success is very much owing to the manner of locating and con- 
structing these same ejecting ventiducts. 

The brick ducts always operate downwards ; that is to say, the air has a constant ten.' 
dency to fall in them, and they will never " draw" in the proper or upward direction, with 
the best turncap or top known, unless there is a high wind, or unless artificial power, 
such as afire, or a fan wheel be put in requisition. Now the contrary is the fact with the 
thin wooden, or lath-and-plaster, interior ventiduct. The current is always in the right or 
uvward direction. They are warmed to the temperature of the room, and when provided 
with a proper top will operate in all seasons. Although the currents will vary in power 
and rapidity, yet. while almost all our ventiducts are provided, and should be, with 
means of heating by lamps or otherwise, I believe they have scarcely had occasion to 
light them. So that any impressions formed in relation to this part of the subject from 
the English, and particularly the French methods of ventilating school-houses, when the 
brick flues are always used, must be entirely erroneous. The days in which the fires in 
the French flues would be forgotten and omitted, or be permitted to go out, would far exceed 
the number of those in which our ventiducts would not act in the most perfect manner 
icithout any power at all. 

I would not have troubled you, but that I know this point, from much practical experi- 
ence, to be worthy of especial attention, and in case you should publish a new edition of 
your work on school-houses, I hope it may be considered. 

I am, dear sir, 

Yours very truly, 
j j HENRY G. CLARK 



ig2 school architecture. 

Ventilation of Buildings. 

The ventilation of buildings in relation to public health in large towns 
is now attracting much attention in England. The following valuable 
suggestions are taken from a recent work, published in London, ny John 
Murray, entitled, " A guide to the proper regulation of buildings in towns 
as a means of promoting and securing the health, comfort and safety of 
the inhabitants" by William Hosking. In the chapter preceding that 
from which these extracts are taken, the author discusses the subject of 
drainage, and as ventilation as applied to buildings implies both the means 
of admitting and of compelling the entrance of fresh air, and the means 
of escape and of compelling the exit of spent or otherwise foul air from 
any building, and from the several apartments with which a building may 
be divided, the importance of a system of drainage, or the removal of all 
such matters as are offensive to any sense, or capable of. under any cir- 
cumstances to which they may be exposed, of causing annoyance and 
injury, is readily understood. 

Perfect scavengering is the first essential to cleanliness, and to the protection 
of the air from pollution in and about buildings, the excreta arising in which are 
dejected into dry sand or gravel ; whilst the soil-drainage of buildings will not 
supersede the necessity of scavengering, nor, having regard to the wholesome- 
ness of the locality, ought it to be preferred to the dry cesspool, where the dry 
cesspool is available to the effect already indicated, unless provision be first 
made for scouring the contents away, and for removing directly to the upper air 
the gases which they will evolve in their psssage.* 

Doors and windows ought not to be taken into consideration in connection 
with the ventilation of buildings ; they are provided for facility of ingress and 
egress to and within the building, and for admitting light to the several apart- 
ments, and cannot be applied to promote ventilation in the seasons, and under 
the circumstances, which make ventilation most highly desirable. It is not 
enough, indeed, to set a window or a door open to admit fresh air into an other- 
wise unventilated apartment, even when windows and doors can be properly 
set open. The air must be drawn in, or it must be pressed in, and in either case 
there must be a way of escape for that Which the apartment had previously con- 
tained; and as two opposite currents of the same kind of fluid can hardly pass 
one another in the same orifice, the ventilation of an apartment — that is, the 
establishment of a current of air through it — can only be properly effected by 
the establishment of opposite currents through different orifices. In this man- 
ner it will be found that a fire-place, with an open flue from it leading to the 
outer air, will act in concert with an open window, by allowing an up-draught 
to be fed by the window, or by permitting a down-draught, according to the 
state of the atmosphere and the direction of any currents of wind, or as there 
may or may not be a fire in the chimney, or heat affecting its flue from fire in 
another chimney. But the state of the atmosphere is uncertain, currents of 
winds are unsteady and changeable, and, moreover, open windows are seldom 
consistent with fires as sources of warmth, and the common domestic focal fire 
may not, therefore, be relied upon as a means of ventilating an apartment in 
connection with open windows. Moreover, one-third of the life of civilized man 
is passed in apartments within buildings, under circumstances which, for the 
most part, preclude open windows, and render fires either inconvenient or un- 
necessary as a source of warmth. One-third of the lives of three-fourths of 
the people of England is passed, however, in rooms which have no chimney at 

* In coal countries, where ash and cinder arise in large quantities in even the poorest dwell- 
ings, and go to the ash-pit or dust-bin with animal and vegetable refuse, &c, the injury to the 
air of the locality from defective scavengering is not so great as in London, and other towns 
where coal is dear. 



VENTILATION OF BUILDINGS. 



163 



ail, or of which the chimney opening has a board before it, and of which the 
doors and windows are all shut as closely as the occupiers can shut them. In 
the cases of the few who may indulge in bed-room fires in the winter, or of those 
who will open a bed-chamber window an inch or two in the summer, the for- 
mer allow the fire to divide with them the pent-up air of the apartment, and the 
latter shut down the register-flap, or put up the chimney-board, to prevent the 
circulation, which the state of the atmosphere or of the wind might bring about. 

But although, between the focal fire which compels air to enter, and the chinks 
and crannies by which, when doors and windows are shut, the air is compelled 
to pass, some amount of ventilation is obtained in the customary day-rooms, it 
is mainly through the lower parts of a room, and to the height of the chimney- 
opening, that any change is really effected ; and even this amount of ventilation 
is not obtained without exposing the occupiers of the room to cold draughts; 
whilst in summer time, when the air of an apartment is sought to be changed 
by opposite open windows, the occupiers are exposed to draughts which are 
often as much more dangerous, as they are more agreeable, than the cold 
draughts which the fire compels in the winter. 

Fire-places and their flues, and doors and windows, may, therefore, be fully 
provided in any building, and to every apartment of a building, and the build- 
ing, and its apartments remain wholly unventilated in the proper sense of the 
term, which — it may be repeated in another form — consists in the continued flow 
into the building, and into its apartments, of fresh air, in a state to be agreeable 
as it regards temperature, and in a manner which shall not constitute a sensible 
current, and the consequent ejection from the building of spent or otherwise de- 
teriorated air, and this at all times and seasons. But air is an inert body, and 
will not move either into or out of an apartment, unless something be done to 
induce movement; but it yields ready obedience to any action that does not 
seek to compress it, and responds freely to any endeavour to draw it. It will 
neither enter a close room, unless way is first made for it by the exit of what 
may be there already ; nor will it submit, without resistance, to be pressed into 
a close room, but it will follow in at one opening if air be drawn out at another, 
or it will enter and drive/ out what might be already in possession of the in- 
closed space with the slightest possible force ; that is to say, the way out being 
as large as the way by which the air is pressed in. 

Some power must, thereibre, be employed aud applied to secure the move- 
ment of air, necessary, in the first place, to the ventilation of a building or of 
an apartment, and irrespective of the condition of the air as to temperature ; 
and the power employed should be certain and constant. But there is no power 
placed at our disposal that can be relied upon as certain and constant, Avithout 
involving labor, that is to say, expense ; whilst the purpose under consideration 
is one, of which the people generally do not see the necessity so clearly, nor feel 
so acutely, as to induce them to- be at charges to promote it. 

People, who would revolt at the idea of drinking out of the same cup or glass 
with a stranger, or even with a guest, suffer no annoyance from, and feel no dis- 
gust at, inhaling what has already passed through the lungs of those who may 
be shut up in a room with them, however close the room maybe, and whether 
the room be an apartment of a dwelling-house, a shop, a chapel, a church, or a 
theatre. 

Another phase of foulness as it regards ventilation is found in the practice of 
the tobacco-smoker, whom fastidiousness would prevent from taking up a cigar 
that had been between the lips of another; but who seems to be unconscious 
that, although the expired air of untainted breath may rise as it passes the lips, 
the air comes dense, and tainted with a nauseous odour, out of his mouth, and, 
refusing to rise, is perforce inhaled by whoever may follow the same way; the 
squeamishness being exercised in his own favor, and the grossness to the loath- 
ing of his neighbors. 

But although power, involving expense in its establishment, maintenance, 
and application, is necessary to effect the proper and complete ventilation of any 
buildings used for the purposes of habitation in civilized life, a much greater 
approach to ventilation than is generally attained maybe made without the ad- 
ditional expense which the employment of a certain and constant power would 
impose, if advantage were taken of the agencies which nature provides without 
charge, and of those which are commonly established and maintained for other 
'purposes. The agencies provided by nature, available towards the ventilation of 



IQ4 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

buildings, consist in the difference in density of the atmosphere at different ten?* 
peratures, and in the force of the wind : the one always, to some extent, availa- 
ble, as between the inside and outside of a building : and the other only availa- 
ble when it is in force, at which time, however, it is liable to act with more than 
the desired effect, if the means of its application be adapted to render its send- 
ees of use when it acts but slightly. These agencies being taken together, 
however, and aided rather than checked, as they would be according to the com- 
mon practice, by the heat from the flues of the fires which are to be found in 
every dwelling-house, at least, to a greater or less extent, all the year round, 
will be found to do much if properly applied to ventilation in most ordinary 
eases. 

Let every fire-place be connected with the outer air by a flue, tube, or other 
means of communication in the wall, or through or under the floor, opening out 
at the lowest level above ground and admitting the air behind the range or stove, 
or rather behind the faces or cheeks which may be made to form a coffer about 
the fire-box or grate, shut off at the top by a metal pkte, or by the boiler if it 
be a range, or by tiles set to that effect; and make openings through the faces 
or cheeks at the level of the hearth to let in air before the fire, and so that the fire 
may be fed with air which it will compel to enter, and be spared the task of 
checking the desired up-draught in whatever flue or flues may be provided to 
carry off the foul or spent air from the apartment, or from the inside of the house- 
generally. If the air so delivered by the special provision made for every fire, 
is in sufficient quantity— that is to say, if the way for it be large enough, and it 
ought for the purpose to be equal in area in its transverse section to the register- 
way over the fire — there will be no draughts in the room when the doors and 
windows are shut, although the wind may force currents if the joints be badly 
made ; and, moreover, the air admitted to feed the fire will take up warmth 
enough from the grate, in passing behind and about it, not to be disagreeable if 
it escape into the room and be felt, nor detrimental to the purposes of afire used 
for cooking. 

The fires being thus provided with air for the purposes-, as well as with vents 
for the products, of combustion, will make no demand for airupon those vents — 
that is to say, upon their own smoke-flues, but, on the contrary,, send a stronger 
draught up them. In such case the chimney-flue may be made the means of 
removing the spent air from the room itself by an opening made under the ceil- 
ing into the flue. But, it may be said, there will be an effective up-draught only 
when there is a fire burning in the grate — and that is true, and therein the oper- 
ation is defective for the full purposes of ventilation ; and, it may be added, 
that it does not yet appear in what manner the room' itself is to be supplied with 
the air which, when spent, will be drawn into the flue by the up-draught, occa- 
sioned by the combustion going on in the grate when there is a fire. And to 
supply the deficiency in this respect without resorting to the clumsy, dirty, and 
uncomfortable practice of letting cold air in behind and under the skirtings of 
a room, the current of sweet air coming in by a flue or tube, and delivering itself 
behind and about the grate, may be made to do the double duty of feeding the 
fire and supplying the room for the purposes of respiration. 

It has been said that the inlet for fresh air to the fire should be equal in area 
to the area of the register opening, and a register is almost essential, over the 
fire ; but a supply by such an inlet will be in excess of the demand of combus- 
tion in the grate, inasmuch as the register opening must bealways large enough 
to carry off the smoke, or steam rather, which coal, when it first reaches the 
fire, throws oft'; and although this should be followed by a full body of air, 
much of what the fire would draw in will pass up the flue un consumed, when 
the simple purposes of combustion alone have to be supplied. The register- 
flap will admit, therefore, of being partially closed during the long intervals 
between the coalings of a fire, and the fresh and tempered air emerging from 
the openings through the cheeks of the grate will enter the room to supply the 
place of what the chimney-flue is drawing offby the orifice under the ceiling. By 
this simple process, and with most inexpensive mechanical arrangements, every 
room in which a fire is employed may be pleasantly and most wholesomely fed 
with air, and.be, to a great extent, really and effectually ventilated so long as a 
fire is employed. 

So long as the up-draught is certain, that is, as long as afire is burning in the 
grate below, and the fire is well supplied with air, there will be no danger of 



VENTILATION OF BUILDINGS. 



165 



anything coming down the flue. But inasmuch as the flue is a smoke-flue, and 
to prevent any down-draught from dislodging the soot, and driving i t through the 
orifice into the apartment, it is necessary to apply soine simple self-acting valve 
which shall close the orifice to the slightest pressure from the side toward the 
flue, and open it to an equally slight pressure on the side of the apartment. 
**** *** * * * * 

Power may be applied in the ventilation of buildings, either — as already re- 
marked — by forcing in the fresh air, or by drawing out the spent air, and a light 
and simple pump of not more than a turnspit power will suffice to ventilate al- 
most any building of average size, to the extent of establishing an equable and 
sufficient current of air through it; so that, whether the pump be worked by di- 
rect or by reversed pumping action, there be both an inlet and an outlet fully 
equal to the capacity of the pump, the outlet at least being not liable to be acted 
Upon by any currents of wind. Thus, if there be an apparatus for warming air, 
it should be placed at a low level, in free communication with the outer air, 
which should be warmed in its way into the building, and the warmed air passing 
freely into the building, a pump applied to a lift-case, or other tube or flue open- 
ing to the interior at a high level diagonally opposite to the inlet, and worked there, 
the whole of the air in the building, so far as It is exposed to the current, may 
be changed in a time that can be calculated, the fresh warm air taking the 
place of what is removed — that is, if all the other inlets besides that for the 
warmed air be closed, and the warming apparatus and its means of warming 
be sufficient; and, in like manner, in the season when it is not necessary to 
warm the air before it is admitted, the same action will change the air and 
eause substitution of fresh for foul, though the ways in may be greatly increased 
by opened windows and doors. Conversely, the power may be applied at the 
inlet for the warmed air, when the reversed action of the pump will throw air 
in ; there being, as a matter of course, a way out provided; when the spent air, 
meeting with no sensible resistance, will pass off by such outlet, and so thorough 
ventilation will be effected. 

It may not be out of place to remark that many churches are supplied with a 
certain and constant power, so placed for the most part, with reference to the 
body of the church, as not only to offer itself, but to offer itself in the most con- 
venient place for the purpose of promoting the effective ventilation of the build- 
ing whenever its services may be required Church clocks have, or ought to 
have, power beyond their ordinary work, to overcome the effect of the highest 
wind upon the hands, so that every church dock may be supposed able to spare 
power enough to work, at sufficient speed, the light pumps necessary in any 
case to draw off the spent air from the body of the church. And the church 
clock is placed in the tower, and the tower rises so much above the body of the 
church, that it may be most easily made to act as the ventilating flue to the 
church. Thus, in winter-time the withdrawal of the cold air by pumps in the 
tower, fitted into flue-like lift-cases and geared to the clock, will give the warm- 
ing apparatus, which ought perhaps to be diagonally opposite, or thereabouts, 
to the outlet into the tower, the means of warming the church in a much shorter 
time than when it has to aet upon the confined and inert body of cold air which 
the chureh may have contained'; inasmuch as the pumps would, in withdraw- 
ing the cold air, compel the fresh air, tempered by the warming apparatus, to 
supply its plaee; and this operation being effected before the services com- 
mence, the church would not be felt by the assembling congregation to be either 
cold or close, and the ventilating process continuing, the spent air would be re- 
moved as it arose, and its place being supplied by fresh and tempered air for 
respiration, the faintness and weariness which so often distress a congregation 
in a close unventilated church would never be felt: nor would the operation be 
less beneficial in summer-time, when the horizontal flaps to the half-hopper 
windows of churches stand, without such operations, unavailingly open, as the 
cooler outer air cannot rise to flow over the hoppers, even if it could make its 
way in against the pent-up air already inclosed. But the pumps in the clock- 
tower, worked by the clock, summer as well as winter, and drawing the 
spent and heated air out from under the roof or ceiling of the church, would 
compel the outer air to supply its place within the church, by whatever ways 
it may be found in any case most to the comfort d£ the .congregation to opera 
fer its adsaission. 



1(3(3 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

A knowledge of the organization of the Public Schools of Boston, is 
necessary to a ready understanding of the plans of the new school-houses 
recently erected in that city, — especially of the new Grammar school- 
houses. For this reason, and for general information, we have drawn up 
the following sketch of the system. 

System of Public Instruction in Boston, Mass. 

The system of Public Instruction in Boston, as it now stands, embra- 
cing Primary, Grammar, and High Schools, is the growth of more than 
two centuries. The germ of the whole system is to be found in the vote 
of the town by which " Brother Philemon Purmont was intreated to be- 
come school-master for the teaching and nurturing of children with us," 
and the first records of the town contain a sum voted for the " maintenance 
of a free school-master." By the Act of the General Court passed 1647, 
" to the end that learning should not be buried in the graves of our fore- 
fathers," every town having one hundred householders was required to 
maintain a "free grammar school ; the master whereof being able to in- 
struct youth so far as they may be fitted for the university." In that 
year the present Latin School was founded, but was known as the Gram- 
mar School till 1713, when it took the name of the South Latin School, — a 
new Grammar school having been established in that year, called the 
North Latin School, and now known as the Eliot school. 

In 16S4, a class of free schools called writing schools were founded, to 
leach children to ' L read and write." Of this class there were four in 1785. 

In 1789, the schools were remodeled. One (the North) of the Latin 
Schools were discontinued, and "reading schools" (now known as depart- 
ments under the Grammar master) were established in separate depart- 
ments from the " writing schools ;" and the whole placed under the 
direction of a School Committee chosen annually by the town. Previous 
to this, the schools were under the inspection of the Selectmen, " and of 
such gentlemen of liberal education, together with the reverend minis- 
ters" as should be appointed for the purpose. 

In 1S12, a separate school for colored children was established, and 
called the Smith School. 

In 1818, the School Committee were instructed by a vote of the town 
to appoint three persons from each ward, whose duty it was made collec- 
tively, to provide instruction for children between the ages of four and 
seven years, out of the sum of $5000, appropriated for the purpose for 
that year. This was the origin of the Primary Schools of Boston, and of 
this class of schools in this country. Previous to this date, no child could 
be sent to the Grammar schools, until he could read the English language. 

In 1821 the English High School for boys was begun, and its success 
was such, as to lead to the establishment in 1825 of the High School for 
girls. This last school was discontinued in a Hew years. Its place is in 
part supplied by allowing the girls to remain two years longer than the 
boys in the Grammar school. But the fact that near two-thirds of all the 
scholars in the private schools are females, shows that there is a defi- 
ciency in the system of public schools in reference to female education. 

In 1828 ten schools, one in each primary district, were designated t© 
receive children who were over seven years, and were not prepared for 
the Grammar schools. 

The following is the organization of the Public Schools, as gathered 
from the Rules and Regulations published in 1848. 
ORGANIZATION of the system. 

All the schools of the city are under the superintendence of a Board, or 
General School Committee, consisting of the Mayor, the President of the 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BOSTON. {Qf 

Common Council, and twenty-four persons, annually elected in each ward 
of the city. 

The Board meet for organization in January, and regularly on the first 
Tuesday of February, May, August and November. In January there 
are appointed a Primary School Committee, consisting of a suitable num- 
ber of gentlemen ; a sub-committee of visitation, of five members for 
the Latin and English High Schools respectively, and of three for each 
of the Grammar schools ; a committee on books, of five members ; a com- 
mittee on music, of three members ; a committee of conference with the 
Primary school committee, of three members — and a committee on school- 
houses, to eonsist also of three members. 

The Primary school committee have the exclusive management of the 
Primary schools, organize by themselves with their own sub-committees, 
and fill any vacancy which may occur during the year. 

The sub -committee of visitation must examine the classes in their re- 
spective schools at least once each quarter of the year, and visit them at 
least once a month, and report in writing to the quarterly meeting of the 
Board. This committee decide who are to receive the six medals in their 
respective schools, purchased out of the fund left for that purpose by 
Franklin ; take cognizance of any difficulties in the school, or respecting 
it ; supply vacancies temporarily in the office of teacher, and generally 
take good care of their respective schools. 

The committees of examination must visit all the schools for which they 
are appointed, in May. June or July, and critically examine all the pupils 
of the first elass, in all the branches taught therein, and report to the 
board ; and after their report has been accepted, it shall be printed and 
distributed to every family in the eity. 

Besides the specific duties assigned to each member on the several sub- 
committees, each member must consider it his duty to watch over all the 
public schools, to attend the visitations, exhibitions and examinations. 

All the instructers are elected annually in August, and their salaries 
fixed for the year. In case of a vacancy, notice must be given in the 
newspapers, and application to the committee must be made in writing by 
the candidates. 

PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

There are now 181 Primary sehools for children over 4 and under 8 
years of age. Each school receives an average of fifty children of both 
sexes, and are taught by female teachers. 

In these schools, the alphabet, pronouncing and spelling words, numer- 
ation and combination of numbers, the stops and marks, mental arithme- 
tic and reading, are attended to. On Tuesday and Friday instruction is 
given to such as come prepared for it in needle-work. Oral instruction 
and exereises on the slate and blackboard constitute a part of the daily 
exercises. The health and physical comfort of the pupils receive special 
attention- For this purpose there are three recesses of ten minutes each, 
every half day. When the weather, or the arrangements of the build- 
ing will not admit of out-door exercises, various gymnastic exercises are 
gone through with in doors. The ventilation of the rooms is now made 
an objeet of speeial attention. 

In these sehools the stimulus of rewards and prizes is applied — ten 
dollars being annually appropriated to each school for this purpose. 

At the age of 7, every pupil, who can spell correctly, and read fluently 
receives a certificate of recommendation to one of the Grammar schools. 
If not prepared for the Grammar school, the pupil is sent to what may be 
termed the intermediate school of the district. 

The city in reference to this class of schools is divided into a conven- 
ient number of districts. Each school is under the special charge of one 



168 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



person, and the schools of the district are under the supervision of a board, 
composed of the committee of each school. Each member must visit his 
own school once a month, and all the schools in his district at least once a 
year. The first classes in all the schools of a district are examined 
together, by a committee of the Primary school committee semi-annually 
at one place. 

The Primary School Board, composed of all the members appointed by 
the School Committee, meet for organization in February, and appoint a 
President, Secretary, an Executive Committee, and a committee on 
school-houses, and on school-books. 

The Executive Committee attend to the semi-annual examinations of 
the schools of each district, and report on their condition, and suggest 
plans of improvement. They hold also semi-annual meetings of ail the 
Primary school teachers. 

Grammar Schools. 
The following are the names, situation and date of the establishment of 
the several Grammar Schools. 



1. Eliot School, . 

2. Jldams School, 

3. Franklin School, 

4. Mayhem School, 

5. Hawes School, 

6. Smith School, 

7. Boylston School, 

8. Bowdoin School, 

9. Hancock School, 

10. Wells School, 

11. Johnson School, 

12. Winthrop School 

13. Lyman School, 

14. Endicoti School, 

15. Mather School, 

16. Brimmer School, 

17. Phillips School, 

18. Otis School, . 

19. Dwight School, 

20. Quincy School, 



North Bennet St For Boys. 

Mason St For Boys! 

Washington St For Girls. 

Hawkins St For Boys, 

South Boston, For Boys 

Belknap St For Boys 

Fort Hill, . For Boys 

Myrtle St For Girls, 

Between Richmond and Prince sts.For Girls, 

McLean St For Girls, 

Tremont St For Girls, 

East St For Girls, 

East Boston, For Boys 

Cooper St For Boys 

South Boston, For Boys 

Common St For Boys, 

Pinckney St For Boys, 

Lancaster St For Boys 

Concord St For Boys 

Tyler St For Boys, 



1713 

1717 

1785 

1803 

and Girls, . . . 1811 
and Girls, . . . 1812 
and Girls, . . . 1819 

1821 

...... 1822 

1833 

.... 1836 

.... 1836 

and Girls, . . . lSS^ 

and Girls, . . . 1840 

and Girls, . . . 1843 

.... 1844 

1844 

and Girls', '. '. ! 1844 

and Girls, . . . 1844 

.... 1847 



Children who can read fluently easy prose may be admitted into 
the Grammar and Writing Schools at the age of .eight years. They 
must be examined by the grammar master. Children above eight years 
of age. although not possessing the necessary qualifications, may be 
admitted by a special permit from the Sub-Committee of the school, 
and children of the age of seven years may be admitted when they shall 
satisfactorily appear, on examination by the grammar master, to be other- 
wise qualified for admission ; but no pupil can be admitted to the Gram- 
mar Schools from the Primary Schools, without a permit from a member 
of the Primary School Committee. 

Boys are not permitted to retain their place in these schools beyond the 
day of the next annual exhibition, after they have arrived at fourteen 
years of age, unless by special leave from the Sub-Committee. Girls 
are allowed to attend these schools until the next annual exhibition, after 
they shall have arrived at the age of sixteen. 

In these schools are taught the common branches of an English edu- 
cation. They are organized on three different plans. 

First Plan. In the Eliot, Adams, Franklin, Boylston, Bowdoin. Han- 
cock, Wells, Mather, Brimmer, Phillips and Otis Schools, there are two 
halls, occupied by two departments, one of which is a Grammar and 
the other a Writing School. The pupils are organized in two divis- 
ions. While one division attends the Grammar, the other attends the 
Writing School. Thus the two departments exchange pupils half daily. 
In the Grammar department, the pupils are taught chiefly Spelling, 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BOSTON. Jgg 

Reading, English Grammar, Geography, and History ; and in the Wri- 
ting department, Writing, Arithmetic, Algebra. Natural Philosophy, and 
Drawing. 

Second Plan. In the Hawes, Johnson, Winthrop, Lyman, and Endi- 
cott Schools, there are two departments, entirely distinct, each under the 
control of separate instructers. 

Third Plan. The Mayhew, Dwight, Quincy, and Smith Schools, are 
each under the charge of one head master, who has the direction of the 
whole course of education. 

In the schools on the first plan, for boys exclusively, each department 
is instructed by a master, an usher, and a female assistant. In the 
schools on the first plan, for girls exclusively, each department is in- 
structed by a master and three female assistants. In the mixed schools 
on the first plan, each department is instructed either by a master, an 
usher, and one female assistant, or by a master and three female assist- 
ants, at the option of the Sub-Committee. 

In the schools on the second plan, each department is instructed by a 
master and three female assistants. 

The schools on the third plan are each instructed by a master, a sub- 
master, an usher, and three female assistants. 

Each school or department is allowed a teacher for every fifty-five 
pupils on the register, and an additional female assistant may be ap- 
pointed whenever there are thirty scholars above the complement for 
the teachers already in the school or department; and whenever the 
number of pupils on the register is reduced to thirty less than such com- 
plement, one female assistant is removed from such school or department. 
Pupils in the schools on the first plan shall attend equally in both de- 
partments, unless specially permitted by the Sub-Committee to attend 
generally or exclusively in one. 

Each school or department of a school is divided into four classes, sub- 
ject to such sub-divisions as the master may judge expedient. 

The order of attendance in the schools on the first plan, where both 
sexes attend, is as follows: — On the first week after the summer vacation, 
the boys attend the Grammar School, and the girls the Writing School in 
the morning ; and the boys attend the Writing School and the girls the 
Grammar School in the afternoon. The week following, the order is re- 
versed, and this alternation continues through the year ; the weeks of 
vacation not being counted. 

In the schools on the first plan, where only one sex attends, each of the 
four classes is divided into two divisions, nearly equal in numbers, and the 
order of attendance is as follows:— On the first week after the summer 
vacation, the first divisions attend the Grammar School and the second 
divisions the Writing School in the morning ; and the second divisions 
attend the Grammar School and the first divisions the Writing School in 
the afternoon. The week following the order is reversed, and this alter- 
nation continues through the year, the weeks of vacation not being counted. 
In the schools on the second and third plans, the order of attendance and 
the sub-divisions of the classes are arranged by the Sub-Committees of 
such schools, upon consultation with the instructers. 

English High School. 
This school is situated in Bedford street. It was instituted in 1821, 
with the design of furnishing the young men of the city, who are not 
intended for a collegiate course of study, and who have enjoyed the usual 
advantages of the other public schools, with the means of completing a 
good English education. Here is given instruction in the elements of 
mathematics and natural philosophy, with their application to the sciences 
and the arts, in grammar, rhetoric, and belles lettres, in moral philosophy, 



170 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

In history, natural and civil, and in the French language. This institu- 
tion is furnished with a valuable mathematical and philosophical appara- 
tus, for the purpose of experiment and illustration. 

The instructors in this school are, a master, a sub-master, and so many- 
assistants as shall give one instructor to every thirty-five pupils, but no 
additional assistant. It is allowed for less than twenty-one additional pupils. 
It is a necessary qualification in all these instructors, that they have been 
educated at some respectable college, and they shall be competent to in- 
struct in the French language. 

No boy can be admitted as a member of this school, under the age of 
twelve years. 

The pupils are arranged in divisions, corresponding to their respec- 
tive degrees of proficiency. It is made the duty of the master to exam- 
ine each division as often as may be consistent with the attention due to 
those under his immediate instruction. 

Individuals are advanced according to their scholarship, and no faster ; 
and none are permitted to remain members of the school longer than 
three years. 

Each class, or section, is occasionally reviewed in its appropriate 
studies ; and, once a quarter, there is a general review of all the pre- 
vious studies. 

Latin Grammar School. 

This school is situated in Bedford street. It was instituted about the 
middle of the 17th century The Latin Grammar School and the Eng- 
lish High School, complete the system of public education, enjoyed alike 
by all classes in this city. 

In the Latin Grammar School the rudiments of the Latin and Greek 
languages are taught, and scholars are fully qualified for the most respect- 
able colleges. Instruction is also given in Mathematics, Geography, 
History, Declamation, and English Composition. 

The instructors in this school are a master, a sub-master, and so many 
assistants as shall give one instructor to every thirty-five pupils, but no 
additional assistant is allowed for less than twenty-one additional pu- 
pils. 

It is a necessary qualification in all the instructors of this school that 
they have been educated at some respectable college. 

The regular course of instruction continues five years, and no 
scholar can enjoy the privileges of this school beyond that term, unless 
by leave of the Sub-Committee. 

These schools are justly the pride and boast of the city ; and the senti- 
ment with which they are universally regarded is beautifully embodied 
in the following extract from an address by George S. Hillard, Esq. 

The schools of Boston are the best jewels in her crown. If I were asked by 
an intelligent stranger to point out to him our most valued possessions. I would 
show to him — not our railroads, our warehouses, filled with the wealth of all 
the earth, our ships, our busy wharves and marts, where the car of commerce 
is ever " thundering loud with her ten thousand wheels," but I would cany him 
to one of our public schools, would show him its happy and intelligent chil- 
dren, hushed into reverent silence at their teacher's word, or humming over 
their tasks with a sound like that of bees in June. I would tell him that here 
was the foundation on which our material prosperity was reared, that here 
were the elements from which we constructed the State. 

Here are the fountains from which flow those streams which make glad our 
land. The schools of Boston are dear to my heart. Though I can have no 
personal and immediate interest in them; though no child on earth calls me 
father; yet most gladly do I contribute to their support, according to my sub- 
stance; and when I see a father's eyes filled with pleasant tears as he hears 



SYSTEM OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN BOSTON. 



171 



the music of his child's voice linked to some strain of poetry or burst of elo- 
quence, I can sympathize in the feeling in which I cannot share. May the 
blessing of Heaven rest upon our schools. They are an object worthy of all 
efforts and sacrifices. We should leave nothing undone which may tend to 
make them more excellent and more useful. For this; we should gather into 
our own stores all the harvest of experience which have been reaped from 
other soils. The present is an age of progress. The claims of humanity are 
now beginning to be heard as they never were before. The movements in 
favor of Peace, of Anti-Slavery, of Temperance, of Education, of Prison Dis- 
cipline, all spring from the same root — a sense of sympathy and brotherhood. 

Is it too much to say that the dawn of a new day is reddening the tops of the 
mountains'? Higher yet may that light ascend, till its golden shafts have 
pierced the deepest valleys of ignorance and sin! Let us not stand idly on 
the brink, while the tide of improvement sweeps by us, but boldly launch our 
bark upon the stream. 

We live in a community ready to discern and to do that which is right. It 
should be a source of gratitude to us that our lot is cast on a spot, where every 
good and worthy faculty may find appropriate work to do. When I behold 
this city that we love, seated upon her triple throne of hills with her mural 
crown of spires and domes glittering in the smokeless air, when I remember 
how much of that which embellishes and dignifies life is gathered under those 
roofs, I feel that he has not lived in vain who has contributed, even in the 
smallest measure, to the happiness and prosperity of Boston. And how can 
we do this more effectually than by watching over her schools, — by making 
them as nearly perfect as human institutions can bel For this object let 
neither wealth nor toil be spared. Here are fountains of life; as they are, so 
will its issues be. The child is father to the man. Make our schools all that 
they can be, and all that they should be, and we shall give to the prosperity of 
our beloved city a permanence like that of moral truth. It will become an 
inevitable necessity, like that which compels the heart of man to love what is 
lovely, and venerate what is venerable. 

The original cost of the public school-houses, exclusive of the amount 
expended from time to time for alteration or repairs, of rebuilding when 
destroyed by fire, exceeds $1,000,000. 

The following table exhibits the expenditures for school-houses and 
other school purposes, by the City of Boston, for the last ten years end- 
ing in May, 1848. We are indebted to Joseph W. Ingraham, Esq., who 
knows the history and statistics of the public schools of Boston by heart, 
for these statistics. 



For new houses, rents, and repairs, 

Fuel, 

Furniture, 

Salaries of Teachers, 

Incidentals, 

Total 



iGrammnr Schools 

$602/720" 9' 

27,622 12 

17,589 96 

857,824 91 

26,238 24 

'$1,531,996 20 



Primary Schools. 


Total for all the 
Schools.' 


$236,026 10 

20,864 27 

10,825 32 

293,986 45 

6,613 67 


$838,747 07 
48,486 39 
28,415 28 

1,151,811 36 
32,851 91 


$568,315 81 


$2,100,312 01 



The following are the items of expenditures for public schools for the 
year ending May 1, 1848. 



For new houses, rents, and repairs, 

Fuel 

Furniture, and Apparatus, . . 

Salaries, 

Incidentals, 

Total, ........ 



Grammar Schools. 


Primary Schools 


Total for all the 
Schools. 


$165,987 58 

4,381 27 

4.439 46 

114,925 80 

2,228 75 


$52,848 71 

4,896 74 

3,584 08 

47,950 64 

763 83 


$218,836 29 

9,277 95 

8,023 54 

162,876 44 

3,092 59 


$291,962 86 


$110,044 00 


$402,966 81 



The above tables do not include the expenditures for the support of the 
House of Reformation for Juvenile offenderSj which is a part of the educa- 
tional system of the city. 



|72 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

It is to be feared there are not many communities, even in New Eng- 
land, where the Chief Magistrate, elected annually by the people, would 
have the courage to utter the following noble sentiments, spoken by 
Mayor Q,uincy, at the dedication of the Gluincy Grammar School-house, 
June 26, 1848. 

As Chairman of the " City Fathers," he did not hesitate to stand there and 
tell the tax-paying community that they had, in this manner, just expended 
$200,000 of their money ; and he was confident the question would not be 
asked, Why spend so much 1 Why spend more for popular education in the 
city of Boston, than is expended in the whole of Great-Britain 1 

He said, if but once in a century, a little being should be sent into this world, 
of most delicate and beautiful structure, and we were told that a wonderful 
principle pervaded every part of it, capable of unlimited expansion and hap- 
piness, capable of being fitted to associate with angels aud becoming the friend 
of God.: or if it should receive a wrong bias, of growing up in enmity against 
him, and incurring everlasting misery,- could any expense of education which 
would contribute to save from such misery and elevate to such happiness, be 
too much"? But, instead of one such little being, 24,000 were now entrusted to 
the care of the " City Fathers," and their education, in this world, will deter- 
mine their future destiny, — of companionship with angels, or with the degraded 
wretched, enemies of God. 

If the community had no responsibility in the matter, how, he asked, could 
it spend money better than in educating these children 1 But they would soon 
control the affairs of Boston, and, to a great extent, of the Commonwealth. 
Nor would their influence stop here. "No man liveth for himself" Each ol 
these children would form a centre of widening influence, whose circumference 
might yet embrace millions of minds, and extend through unnumbered centu- 
ries. 

Here, unlike other countries, every restraint to individual elevation is thrown 
off. All have the most perfect liberty that can be enjoyed, without infringing 
upon the rights of others. How important then, that each child should be ed- 
ucated to understand his rights, and the principles and habits of self-Govern- 
ment, 

We are all, said he, in a partnership, and if one of these little partners suf- 
fers in his character, the whole community suffer in consequence. 

He believed that nearly half of the 400 boys in that school were not Ameri- 
cans. Many of their parents were not fitted for the duties of a Republic. But 
these children, educated side by side with our own, would learn self-govern- 
ment, and be trained to become worthy citizens of this free country. 

It seemed, he said, the design of Providence to mix races; and this influx 
of foreigners might constitute the very elements necessary to give to American 
character its highest excellence. Standing on such a moral elevation, as Bos- 
ton did, they felt it a duty to provide for the education of all, and thus present 
to the whole country, models of popular education. 

His policy would ever be to inquire, not how little would do in appropria- 
tions for educational purposes ; but how much could be judiciously and economi- 
cally expended? And he believed the general voice of the citizens of Boston, 
would continue to sustain this policy. 

The liberality with which public schools are fostered in Massachusetts 
is not confined to Boston, and the large towns, as will appear from the 
following tables, compiled from the School Returns for 1844-45, and first 
published in this form in Educational Tract, No. 3. 

No state in the Union, — no country in the world can show returns for 
the same number of towns, which argue so favorably for the condition 
and improvement of common schools, as does Table No. 1, which exhibits 
the condition of the common schools in several important particulars, m 
twenty-nine towns, which rank highest among the three hundred and eight 
towns in the .state. 



COMMON SCHOOLS IN MASSACHUSETTS. 



173 



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176 school architecture. 

Plans and Description of a Primary School-house, Boston. 

Three new Primary School-houses were erected in Boston, in 1847, under 
the direction of, and on plans furnished by, Joseph W. Ingraham, Esq., 
Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Primary School Board, and 
Chairman of their Committee on School-houses. Mr. Ingraham is also a 
member of the Massachusetts Board of Education. He has devoted himself 
assiduously, and without compensation, for upwards of twenty-five years, to 
the Primary Schools of Boston, and the cause of Education generally ; and 
no one is better acquainted than he with what the wants and conveniences 
of both pupils and teachers require in edifices for this class of schools. The 
following very minute description and plans were kindly furnished, on appli- 
cation, by him. The plans are copied from those appended to his Address 
at the Dedication (March 27, 1848) of one of the School-houses, — that in 
Sheafe street. They will be found worthy the attention of all who are inter- 
ested in school architecture. The distinguished Secretary of the Massachu- 
setts Board of Education, (Mr. Mann,) who was present at the dedication 
of this building, in his remarks at the subsequent dedication of another 
School-house in Boston, referred to this as " perfect of its kind," and said it 
" might well be called the model School-house of the State, and in School- 
houses Massachusetts was a model for the world." The teachers in one of 
these buildings, after having occupied their rooms for five months, say they 
"cannot imagine any improvement that can be made." 

The City of Boston is so compact, and land is so very expensive, that it ia 
difficult to procure sufficient space for playgrounds and other conveniences ; 
but the Schoolhouses erected during the past year, (1847,) are better pro- 
vided for, in this respect, than any others in the City. 

There were three Schoolhouses erected during the year 1847, on plans 
devised and furnished by Mr. Ingraham, the Chairman of the Primary School 
Committee on Schoolhouses. The general features of each are the same, 
differing only in consequence of the size and location of the lots on which 
they are erected. 

These Schoolhouses are believed to possess greater conveniences, for the 
comfort and happiness of both teachers and scholars, than any others ever 
before constructed. In planning them, several objects were had in view. 
Among these, were, 

The desire to allow to each scholar sufficient space, and have the rooms 
perfectly heated and ventilated, so that no one should suffer from want of 
room, or comfortable and pure air : 

To have all the light in the Schoolrooms come in from one side, and that 
at the backs of the scholars, to prevent the detrimental effects of cross-lights, 
which are very injurious to the eyes of young children when in a forming state : 

To give suitable space, on the walls, for the display of maps, charts, pic- 
tures, &c, and provide sufficient recitation-rooms, closets, cabinets, and other 
necessary conveniences : 

To have a separate entrance for each school : 

To so arrange the usual out-door conveniences, that the scholars should 
not have to go out of doors in stormy weather, or down stairs, to gain access 
to them, and at the same time, by removing them from the play-ground, to 
obviate the objections which have been made, by some teachers, to having 
both sexes in the play-ground at the same time, during the recesses: 



PRIMARY St HOOL-HOUSE. 



177 



Ingraham Primary School-House, Boston. 

The Schoolhouse, to which the following description and plans more par- 
ticularly refer, is situated in Sheafe street, at the north part of the City, and on 
the slope of Copp's Hill, famed in our Revolutionary history. It occupies a 
space of twenty-six by fifty-three feet, exclusive of the play-ground in front, 
between it and the street, which is sixteen by fifty-three feet. This front is 
hardly long enough. Sixty feet would have been much better. The main 
building is twenty-six by forty-four feet ; and there are projections at each 
end, — one on the west, four and a half by sixteen and a half feet, contain- 
ing the privies, and one at the east end, three and a half by twenty-one and 
a half feet, in which is the passage from the lower schoolroom to the play- 
ground. 

The building is three stories in height. Each story contains a Schoolroom, 
Recitation-rooms, Closets, Entries, and Privies, and is finished twelve feet high, 
in the clear. Each Schoolroom is lighted by four windows, which are all on 
one side. The first floor is set eighteen inches above the ground at the front 
of the building. The Cellar is finished seven and a half feet high, in the 
clear ; and its floor is on a level with the surface of the ground at the back 
of the building, where is the entrance-door to the first story. 

The Schoolrooms in the first and second stories are thirty feet in length, 
by twenty-two feet and four inches in width, and contain six hundred and 
seventy square feet of floor. That in the third story is thirty-two feet in 
length, by twenty-two feet and nine inches in breadth, and contains seven 
hundred and thirty square feet of floor. Thus allowing from ten to twelve 
or thirteen square feet of floor, and one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air, to 
each scholar. 

The following diagram will show the arrangement of the ground-floor, 
with the Play-ground in front. 




12 



Scale 16 feet to the- inch. 



178 SCHOOL, ARCHITECTURE. 

The following references will apply to the ground-plan of each of the three 
stories. 

1, Entrance to First Story, by a door under the window W, the back part of the 
building being eight feet lower than the front. 

2, 3, Entrance-doors to the Second and Third Stories. 

A, A, A, Stairs to First Story, from the Entrance-door 1. 

B, Blinds in Boys' Privies. 

F, Fireplace or Furnace-flue, or Stove, when one is used instead of a Furnace. 

G, G, Entrance-gates to Second and Third Stories. The Iron Fence extends the whole 
length of the front on the street, broken only by these two gates. 

R, R, Recitation-rooms, or spaces used for that purpose. In the first story, that on the 
right being the entrance-passage to the schoolroom, and that on the left, the passage 
to the Second Story. 

5, S, S, S, Large Slates, measuring four by two and a half feet, affixed to the walls, 
instead of Blackboards. 

T, T, T, Trees in Play-ground. That near the fence, is an old horse-chestnut tree. 
U, Umbrella stands. The place of those of the second story only are shown. In 
the other stories, they are also in the entrance-passages. 
W, W, Windows. 
a, Stairs to Second Story. 

6, o, b, In second story, Entry, and place for Boys' Clothes-hooks, also used as a. 
Recitation-room. In third story, place for Clothes-hooks. 

c, In second story, Door into the Recitation-room where are the Sink and Girls' 
Clothes-hooks. In third story, Door into Recitation-room where is the Brush Closet 
and entrance to Girls' Privy. 

d, d, d, In second story, Girls' Clothes-hooks. 

e, Sinks. 

f, Privy for Girls. g, Privy for Boys. h, Trough in ditto. 

i, i, Space between the walls of the Privies and main building, for more perfect ven- 
tilation, and cutting off of any unpleasant odor. [This space is here too much con- 
tracted, on account of the want of room. It would be much better, if greatly increased.] 

k, Entrance-door to Schoolroom, through which, only, scholars are allowed to enter. 
In third story, the passage from the stairs to the Entrance-door is through the Recita- 
tion-room. 

I, Teachers' Platforms, six feet wide and twelve feet long, raised seven inches from 
the floors. 

to, Teachers' Tables. 

n, Ventiduct. That for each room is in the centre of that room. These are better 
shown in the diagram representing the Ventilating arrangement, (p. 183.) 

o, o, Closets, in the vacant spaces on the sides of the Ventiducts, in the First and 
Second Stories. In first story, they are on each side of the Ventiduct ; in second story 
only on one side. In the third story, there are of course none. See the diagram of the 
Ventilating arrangement, (p. 183.) 

p,p, Ventiducts for other rooms. In plan of second story, p shows the position of the 
Ventiduct for first story. In third story plan, pp show the positions of those for both 
the lower stories. 

q, q, q, Childrens' chairs, arranged in the second story. Their form is represented in 
another diagram, (p. 181.) 

r, s, t, Hot-air Flues from the Furnace, Cold-air Flues if Stoves are used, and Smoke 
Flues. These will be better understood by a reference to the diagram explanatory of 
the Chimney Pier, (p. 182.) 

u, u, Cabinets for Minerals, Shells, and other objects of Natural History or Curiosity. 

v, Door of Recitation-room. In first story, this door leads to the entry in which 
are the Sink, Brush-Closet, entrance to the Privies, and passage to Second Story. In 
second story, it leads to the Recitation-room where is the Teacher's Press-closet ; and 
in the third story, to that in which are the Sink, entrance to the Privies, aud Stairs to 
the Attic. 

16, Teacher's Press-closet, fitted with shelves and brass clothes-hooks. 

x, Closet for Brooms, Brushes, Coalhods, &c. That for the first story is under the 
Second- Story stairs. 

a, a, a, Stairs to the Third Story. 

b, b, Doors connecting First and Second, and Second and Third Stories. 

f, Place for Fountain, in the centre of the Play-ground. 

g, g. g, Grass-plats, or Flower-beds. 

p, Passage from the First-Story Schoolroom to the Play-ground. 

The Plan of the second story, on the next page, is drawn on a larger scale, 
for greater convenience in showing all the arrangements. The references on 
this diagram are more copious and minute than on either of the others. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



179 




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180 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



The building fronts nearly N. N. E., and of course all the light comes into 
the Schoolrooms from the North. At the same time, in order to secure the 
benefit of the winds that prevail in Summer, and the admission of " a streak 
of sunshine," which adds so much to the cheerfulness of any room, and 
particularly of a schoolroom, there are windows in the back or southerly 
wall, opening into the recitation-rooms or entries, through which, and the 
entrance-doors, the sunlight finds its way into each schoolroom. The Nea- 
politan proverb, "Where the sun does not come, the physician must," has 
not been lost sight of; though it must be confessed that we have not been able 
to pay so much attention to it as would be desirable. 

The next diagram, which is on the same scale with the first, will show 
the arrangement of the third story, which differs from the first and second in 
having a larger schoolroom, and mor-e space for recitation-rooms ; less space 
being occupied for stairways than in the other stories. The partitions at the 
ends are set one foot each way nearer to the ends of the building, making 
the Schoolroom thirty-two' feet in length, while the others are only thirty. 

W _ W W W 




Scale 16 feet to the inch. 



It will be seen, that the ends of the building are cut off from the school- 
rooms, by entries, stairways, recitation-rooms, &c, and the back and end 
walls are left blank, for convenience in displaying Maps, Charts, Pictures, &c, 
and for the large Slates, used instead of Blackboards. As ample provision, 
as was practicable, has been made for recitation-rooms, closets, and other 
necessary conveniences. 

It will be seen, from the Plans of the different Stories, that the Entrance- 
door (k) to each Schoolroom is in that part of the partition nearest to the 
back walls ; so that, on entering the room, the Teacher's Platform is directly 
before the scholar or visiter. This Plaiform is six feet wide and twelve feet 
long, and is raised seven inches above the floor, that being a sufficient height 
to give the Teacher a full view of the whole school. In the transverse-sec- 
tional elevation, (p. 184,) the raised Platform is shown at P. 

On this Platform, is a Table, (m,) instead of a Desk, that being the more 
convenient article for the Teacher's use. On it, are constantly kept, in full 
view of the scholars, The Laws of the School, — the Holy Bible, the Rule 
and Guide of Life, the Moral and Religious Law ; the Dictionary, the Law 
of Language, the Authority for Orthography and Orthoepy ; and the Rules 
and Regulations of the Committee. These should be always on every 
Teacher's table or desk, and should be frequently appealed to. On this 
Table, also, are the Record Book of the School, Ink-standish, Table Bell, 
and other necessary articles. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



181 




In front of the Teacher's Platform, and facing it, ar- 
ranged in a semi-circular form, as shown at q q q, in the 
Plan of the Second Story, are the Seats for the schol- 
ars. These are comfortable and convenient Arm-chairs, 
of which the annexed diagram shows the form. Each 
has a rack at the side (A) for convenience in holding 
the books or slates of the scholars. These chairs were 
the contrivance of Mr. Ingraham, and were introduced 
by him into the Primary Schools, in 1842, since which 
time, the Primary School Board have recommended their 
introduction into all their schools, in preference to any 
other seats, and about one hundred and thirty of the one hundred and sixty 
schools are now supplied with them. They are not fastened to the floor, but 
can be moved whenever necessary ; and this is found to be a great conve- 
nience, and productive of no disadvantage. They have been strongly recom- 
mended by the Committees on School and Philosophical Apparatus, at the 
Exhibitions of the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanics' Association, in 1844 
and 1847, and premiums were awarded for them in both those years. 

The following diagram is an elevation of the Front wall of the Schoolroom, 
as seen from the Teacher's Platform. It is on the same scale with the pre- 
ceding Plan of the Second Story, — eight feet to the inch. 




Each Schoolroom is lighted by four windows ; and in the central pier, be- 
tween the windows, are the Cold-air and Chimney Fines, or the Furnace 
Flues. The Fire-place, or Furnace Flue, is represented at F, as in the pre- 
ceding Plans of the different Stories. The arrangement of the Flues, in this 
pier, will be seen in the next diagram. 

On the mantel-piece, over the Furnace Flue, is, in one room, a Vase of Na- 
tive Grasses, or Flowers, and in the others, ornamental Statues, or Statuettes, 
furnished by the Teachers. Above this, suspended on the pier, is the Clock. 

Between the other windows, are Cabinets, for the reception of Minerals, 
Shells, and other objects of Natural History or Curiosity. Their location is 
seen at u u, in the Plans of the respective Stories. There are two of these 
Cabinets in each Schoolroom, between the windows, above the skirting, and 
as high as the windows, with double sash-doors, of cherry-wood, hung with 
brass hinges, fastened with thumb-slides and locks, and fitted with rosewood 
knobs. There are twelve shelves in each, six of them being inclined, with 
narrow ledges on each, to prevent the specimens from rolling off. Immedi- 
ately below them are small Closets, with four shelves in each, and double 
doors, hung and fastened in the same manner as the sash doors. 

The Blinds of the Second Story, represented in this diagram, are framed, 
two parts to each window, and are hung with weights and pulleys, in the 
same manner as the window sashes. They run up above the tops of the 
windows, and behind the skirting of the next story above, in close boxes, and 



182 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



have rings on the bottom rails, to draw them down. In this elevation, they 
are shown in different positions. The windows in the First Story are fitted 
with Venetian Blinds, and those in the Third Story with Inside Shutter-Blinds. 
All the window-stools are wide, and contain Vases of Native Grasses, or 
Flowers. 

Particular attention has been given to the mode of Heating and Ventilating 
these buildings ; and provision has been made for a copious and constant sup- 
ply of fresh air, from out-of-doors, which is so introduced, that it is suffi- 
ciently warmed before it enters the Schoolrooms. 

The Sheafe-street building is heated by one of Chilson's largest-sized Fur- 
naces ; though it was originally constructed with a view to using Dr. Clark's 
excellent Ventilating Stoves, as in the other two buildings.* 

The accompanying diagram shows the ar- 
rangement of the Cold-air and Smoke Flues, 
as arranged for the Stoves. It will be well to 
examine it in connection with the transverse- 
sectional elevation, (p. 184,) and the Floor 
Plans of the different Stories, (pp. 177, 179. 
180.) 

1, 2, 3, Floorings of the First, Second, and Third 
Stories. 4, Roof. 

CA, Cold-air Flue for First Story, which deliv- 
ers the air from without, under the Stove, as shown 
at C A, in the transverse-section, (p. 184,) and at 
F, in the floor-plans. 

r, r, Cold-air Flue for Second Story, which empties 
into the box under the Stove, at CA, in the Second 
Story of the transverse-sectional elevation. It cor- 
responds to r, in the Floor Plans of the first and 
second stories. 

t, t, Cold-air Flue for Third Story, which empties 
into the box CA, under the Stove of that Story, 
as seen in the transverse-sectional elevation, and 
at F, in the Floor Plan. It corresponds to t, in the 
Floor Plans. 

These Cold-air Ducts are twelve by eighteen 
inches, inside, and are smoothly plastered, through- 
out. This is hardly large enough, however. 

s, s. Smoke Flues. That of First Story corre- 
sponds to s, in the floor plan of first story, and to r, 
in those of the second and third. That of Second 
Story corresponds to s, in second-story Plan, and to 
t, in third-story Plan. That of Third Story cor- 
responds to s, on the Plan of that Story. 

These Smoke Flues are eight inches square, ;';?- 
side, and are smoothly plastered, throughout. That 
of each Story commences in the centre of the pier 
in the room to which it belongs. 

[The pier in which these Cold-air Ducts aiu; 
Smoke Flues are placed, is wider than the piers be- 
tween the other windows, in order to allow sufficient 
width to the Ducts. It must be at least six feet.] 

It will be seen, from the transverse-sectional 
elevation, (p. 184,) (the Smoke Flue in which 
is represented as continuous, it not being prac- 
ticable to show the bends,) as well as from 
the Plans of each Story, that the arrangements 
, for Ventilation are directly opposite the Chim- 
ney Flues. The Ventiducts are contained in 
the projecting pier back of the Teachers' 
Platforms and Tables shown at /, m, in the 
Floor Plans. 

It has already been stated, that particular attention has been paid to the 
* Descriptions and Plans of this Furnace and Stove will be found on page 155 




Scale 10 feet to the inch. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



183 




mode of Ventilation ; and it is believed that the system, if not perfect, is 
better adapted to its purpose than any other. The Ventiduct for each room 
is of sufficient size for the room ; and the three are arranged as shown in the 
next diagram. It will be seen, that the Ventiduct for each room is in the 
centre of the pier, thus avoiding any unsymmetrical or one-sided (and of 
course unsightly) appearance. 

1 , 2, 3, 4, Floorings of the First, Second, and Third 
Stories, and Attic. 6, Roof. 

c, c, c, Ventiduct of First Story, commencing in 
the centre of the pier. Between the ceiling of "this 
room and the floor of the Second Story, this flue is 
turned to the left, and then continues in a straight 
line to the Attic, where it contracts and empties into 
the Ventilator V, on the Roof. 

d, d, d, Ventiduct of Second Story, also commenc- 
ing in the centre of the pier, and turning to the 
right, between the ceiling of the Second and floor 
of the Third Story, whence it is continued to the 
Attic, and empties into the Ventilator V. 

e, e, Ventiduct of Third Story, also emptying 
into V. 

These Ventiducts are made of thoroughly sea- 
soned pine boards, smooth on the inside, and put 
together with two-inch screws. Each, as will be 
seen, is placed in the centre of the room to which 
it belongs. They are kept entirely separate from, 
each other, through their whole length, from their 
bases to the point where they are discharged into 
the Ventilators on the Roof. Each is sixteen inches 
square inside, through its whole length to the Attic, 
where, as will be seen by the diagram, each is made 
narrower as it approaches its termination, till it is 
only eight inches in width, on the front, the three 
together measuring twenty-five inches, the diame- 
ter of the base of the Ventilator on the roof. As 
they are contracted, however, in this direction, they 
are gradually enlarged from back to front, so that 
each is increased from sixteen to twenty -four inches, 
the three together then forming a square of twenty- 
five inches, and fitting the base of the Ventilator 
into which they are discharged. The increase in 
this direction will be better seen in the Elevation 
on p. 184, where V V represents one Ventiduct, 
continued from the lower floor to the Ventilator. 

V, Ventilator, on the Roof, into which the three 
Ventiducts from the schoolrooms are discharged. 
This is twenty-five inches in diameter.* 

v, v, Registers, to regulate the draught of air 
through the Ventiducts. There are two of these 
in each Ventiduct, — one at the bottom, to carry off 
the lower and heavier stratum of foul air, which 
always settles near the floor ; and the other near 
the ceiling of the room, for the escape of the lighter 
impure air, which ascends with the heat to the top 
of the room. Each of these Registers has a swivel- 
blind, fitted with a stay-rod, and may be easily 
opened or closed by the Teacher. 

o, o, Closets. The Ventiduct of each Story being 
in the centre of the projecting pier, affords room 
for Closets, on each side in the First Story, and on 
one side in the Second Story, as shown at o o. There 
are four in the First Story, two above and two be- 
low the wainscot. In the Second Story, there are 
two only, one above and the other below the wain- 
scot ; the other side of the pier being occupied by 
the Ventiduct of the First Story. In the Third 
Story there are of course none. Scale 10 feet to the inch. 

* A description, and larger plans, of this Ventilator, are given on page 144. 




184 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




1,2, 3, 4, Floor- 
ings of the First 
Second,andThird, 
Stories, and the 
Attic. 

C, The Cellar. 

C A, Cold-air 
Boxes, opening 
under the Stoves. 

S, Smoke Flue. 

P, Teachers' 
Platforms. 

" V, Ventiduct, 
emptying into the 
Ventilator on the 
Roof. 

v, v, Ventiduct 
Registers. 

V, Ventilator. 



Scale 10 feet to the inch. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 185 

This plan of arranging the Heating and Ventilating apparatus has been 
adopted by the Committee on Ventilation of the Grammar School Board ;* 
but as their plans and diagrams were taken from Mr. Ingraham's first draughts, 
before his final arrangement was decided upon, they are not so complete as 
these. 

The preceding diagram gives a transverse-sectional elevation of the building. 

It has already been stated, that the children are seated with their backs to 
the light, and their faces towards the Teacher's Table and the wall above and 
on either side of it. On this wall, and also on the two end walls, (as shown 
in the transverse-section,) are suspended Maps, Charts, and Pictures, not 
only for ornament, but for the communication of instruction. Vases of Flow- 
ers and Native Grasses ornament the window-stools and the Teachers' Tables ; 
and Statuettes and other useful ornaments and decorations are placed in vari- 
ous parts of the rooms : so that whatever meets the eyes of the children is 
intended to convey useful and pleasing impressions, encouraging and gratify- 
ing the love of the beautiful, and combining the useful with the agreeable. 
The Cabinets of Minerals, Shells, and other objects of Natural History and 
Curiosity, add much to the interest and beauty of the rooms. 

On the back wall, on either side of the Teacher's Platform, at S S S S, are 
four large Slates, in cherry-wood frames, each two and a half by four feet, 
used instead of Blackboards. These Slates are far preferable to the best 
Blackboards, and cost about the same as common ones. The Teachers 
greatly prefer them to Blackboards. In using them, slate pencils are of course 
employed, instead of chalk or crayons, and thus the dust and dirt of the chalk 
or crayons, — which is not only disagreeable to the senses, but deleterious 
to health, by being drawn into the lungs, — are avoided. These Slates may 
be procured in Boston, of A. Wilbur. 

Each School has convenient Recitation-rooms ; though, in consequence of 
the space occupied by the stairs to the Second and Third Stories, the lower 
Story is not so conveniently accommodated, in this respect, as could be de- 
sired. It has, however, two good Entries, which are used for this purpose. 
In the Second and Third Stories, there are three of these rooms, of which 
much use is made. Their location is shown in the Floor Plans. 

In these ante-rooms, are Closets for Brooms, Brushes, and other necessary 
articles of that description, and also Press-closets, furnished with shelves 
and brass clothes-hooks, for the Teachers' private use. In these, also, are 
Sinks, furnished with drawers and cupboards, pails, basins and ewers, mugs, 
&c. Pipes leading from the Sinks, convey the waste water into the Vaults ; 
and in a short time, the waters of Lake Cochituate will be led into each Story. 

Each School has its own separate entrance ; so that they will not interfere 
with each other. And each is provided with sufficient conveniences in its 
entry, for hanging the clothing of the pupils, thus avoiding the necessity of 
its ever being brought into the Schoolroom. Each has also two Umbrella- 
stands in its entry. 

In the Cellar, are placed the Furnace, and necessary conveniences attached 
to it, with Bins for coal and wood. Also two Rain-water Butts, one at each 
end, which receive all the water from the Roofs. Being connected with 
each other, by leaden pipes, under ground, the water in both stands at the 
same level ; and a pipe, leading from the top of one of them into the Vault, 
prevents their ever running over. 

The Cellar is paved with brick, and is convenient for a play-room, when 
the weather is too stormy for the children to go out of doors at recess-time. 

Instead of having the usual out-door conveniences in the yard, they are 
here connected with the entries of the respective schoolrooms, so that no 
child has to go into the open air, except for play in recess-time, or to go 

* See a notice of their plans on page 158. 



186 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



home. This is considered 
highest importance. 



a very great convenience, and a matter of tfe® 




a, a, Surface of 
8ne water in the 
Ses spool. 

b, Outlet to the 
common sewer. 

c, c, Surface of 
the ground outside 
the building. 

d, d, Floors of 
First Story, of 
stone. 

e, e, Floors of 
Second Story. 

f, f, Floors of 
Third Story. 

g, g, Attic. 

I, 2, S, Seats and 
Wells of First, 
Second,and Third, 
Stories. 

V,V,V, Venti- 
duct, ten inches 
square inside, ex- 
tending from with- 
in one foot of the 
surface of the 
water in the Sess- 
pool, to the Ven- 
tilator on the roof 
Its sides are repre- 
sented by the dot- 
ted lines 



Scale 10 feet to the inch. 

The preceding transverse-section will show the peculiar arrangement of the 
Privies to the different stories, and the manner in which all unpleasant conse- 
quences or inconveniences are, it is believed, effectually guarded against. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 187 

By the Plans of the different Stories, it will be seen, that the Privies are in 
a Projection on the western end of the building, the wall of which fs sepa- 
rated from that of the main building-, by the space i i, this space being four 
inches between the walls, and extending from the floor of the First Story to 
the Attic. The doors leading from the entries are kept closed, by strong 
springs; and at B, in the southern wall, is a Blind, through which the air 
constantly passes into this space, and up to the Attic, whence it is conveyed 
in a tight box to the Ventilator on the Roof. Except in very cold or stormy 
weather, the window in the northern side is kept open, (the outer blinds be- 
ing closed,) and thus the whole of the Projection is cut off from the main 
building by external air. The space between the Projection and the main 
building is not, however, so great as it would have been made, had there 
been more room. 

It will be seen, that there is a distinct Well to each Privy, separated 
from the others by a brick wall ending below the surface of the water in the 
sesspool. Of course, the only odor that can possibly come into either of the 
apartments, must come from the well of that apartment, there being no com- 
munication with any other, except through the water. And as every time it 
rains, or water is thrown in from the sinks, the water in the sesspool will be 
changed, and washed into the common sewer, it would seem that no danger 
of unpleasant odor need be feared. When the City water is carried to every 
floor of the building, the conveniences for frequently washing out the sesspool 
will be greatly increased. 

There are two apartments on each floor ; one for the girls, at/, and anoth- 
er for the boys, at g. In the latter, is a trough, (A,) with a sesspool, and 
pipe leading into the well, under the seat. There is no window in the boys' 
apartment, but merely the blind, B, which extends from the floor to the ceil- 
ing. The girls' apartment, being in the front part of the Projection, is pro- 
vided with a window similar to the others, and outside blinds. 

Each apartment is fitted with pine risers, seats, and covers. The covers 
are hung with stout duck or India-rubber cloth, instead of metal hinges, 
which would be liable to corrode, and are so arranged that they will fall of 
themselves, when left. The edges of the cloth are covered with narrow 
slats. There is a box for paper in each apartment. The whole finish is 
equal to that of any other part of the building. 

The interior plastering of all the walls of the building is hard-finished, 
suitably for being painted. 

All the Rooms, Entries, Stairways, and Privies, are skirted up as high as 
the window-stools, with narrow matched beaded lining, gauged to a width 
not exceeding seven inches, and set perpendicularly. 

The interior wood- work of the lower Schoolroom, as well as the interior of 
all the Closets and Cabinets, is painted white. The skirting of the Secona 
Story is of maple,, unpainted, but varnished. All the rest of the inside 
wood-work is painted and grained in imitation of maple, and varnished. The 
outside doors are painted bronze. The blinds are painted with four coats of 
Paris green, and varnished. 

In some other schoolrooms in the City, the interior wood-work, — even of 
common white pine, — has been left unpainted, but varnished, with a very good 
effect ; and it is contemplated to have some of the new Schoolhouses soon to be 
erected, finished in the same way. White pine, stained with asphaltum, and 
varnished, presents a beautiful finish, and is cheaper than painting or graining. 

In the angles formed by the meeting of the walls with the ceiling of each 
room, and entirely around the room, are placed rods, fitted with moveable 
rings, for convenience in suspending maps, charts, and pictures, and to avoid 
the necessity of driving nails into the walls. 

It has been stated, above, that the space between the Privies and the maim 
building, in the Sheafe street Schoolhouse, is not so great as is desirable, nor 



188 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



as it would have been, had there been more room. In the Schoolhouse in 
Tremont street, erected at the same time with that in Sheafe street, there 
being sufficient room for the purpose, the Projection containing the Privies 
is nine and a half by twelve feet, and the wells of the Privies are seven feet 
from the wall of the main building. 

The following Plans were prepared for a new arrangement of the Sheafe 
street Schoolhouse, when it was contemplated to occupy a space eighty feet 
in depth, extending from Sheafe street to the Avenue in the rear. In these 
Plans, the Projection for the Privies is about ten by sixteen feet ; and the 
entrance to each of the Privies is six feet from the wall of the main building, 
and separated from it by three doors. This gives them as much space, and 
separates them as much from the main building, as is needed. 

Plan of First Story. Scale 24 feet to the inch. 
Playground in front. 




It will be seen, from this Plan, that the building was to have an end front- 
ing on Sheafe street, (from which it was to be set back nineteen feet,) and a 
side looking into two of the Playgrounds, each of which was to be twenty- 
seven by thirty feet. The nineteen feet between the building and the street, 
and on a line with the building, the whole extent of the fifty-three feet on 
Sheafe street, was to form a third Playground. 

It has already been mentioned, that the ground at the rear of the building, 
on the Avenue, is eight feet lower than at the front, on Sheafe street ; and 
the scholars of the lower room were to enter, as they do now, from the Ave- 
nue, by a door under the window A, and pass to their schoolroom up the 
stairs a, through the door k. Their Playground was to have been at the 
front end, on Sheafe street, to which they were to pass through the Recita- 
tion-room R, and out by the door 1. The space between the Privies and the 
main building, which is a three-feet passage, is shown at i, as in the former 
Plans, pp. 177, 179, 180. 

The Entrance-doors for the second and third stories are shown at 2, 3. 

Plan of Second Story. 




PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 
Plan of Third Story. 



189 




In other respects, these Plans present some improvement over that of the 
present building in Sheafe street, which is only forty-four feet in length, 
while that proposed in these Plans is fifty feet. This, of course, allows 
more space for the stairways, Recitation-rooms, &c. 

These three Plans will be easily understood, by comparing them with 
those on pp. 177, 179, 180, 181, which are there fully explained. 



Some persons, perhaps, may think that ornaments and decorations, such as 
have been here described, are not necessary in a Schoolhouse ; though none, 
we presume, will think them out of place. Why should not the places, 
where both Teachers and children spend so large a portion of their time, be 
made as pleasant and attractive as possible ? The Schoolroom is the Teach- 
er's parlor and drawing-room ; and should always, not only be neat and tidy, 
but exhibit evidences of good taste and useful ornament. Why should blank 
and naked walls, presenting a cold and cheerless aspect, unrelieved by a sin- 
gle pleasant spot or speck of verdure, be the only or principal objects to meet 
the eyes of the young inmates of these establishments, who are here to re- 
ceive those first impressions, which, as they are the most lasting, and indeed 
almost indelible, should always be useful, and promotive of some useful pur- 
pose? Everything which will give to young persons "a perception of the 
Beautiful," is of great value ; and everything that can be done to render the 
interior of our schoolrooms pleasant and attractive, is of importance. "Why," 
says Mrs. Sigourney, in a valuable Essay ' On the Perception of the Beau- 
tiful,' "why should not the interior of our schoolhouses aim at somewhat 
of the taste and elegance of a parlor 1 ? Might not the vase of flowers enrich 
the mantelpiece, and the walls display, not only well-executed maps, but his- 
torical engravings or pictures? and the bookshelves be crowned with the bust 
of Moralist or Sage, Orator or Father of his Country ? Is it alleged that the 
expense, thus incurred, would be thrown away, the beautiful objects defaced, 
and the fair scenery desecrated ? This is not a necessary result. I have 
been informed, by Teachers who had made the greatest advances towards 
the appropriate and elegant accommodation of their pupils, that it was not 
so. They have said it was easier to enforce habits of neatness and order 
among objeets whose taste and value made them worthy of care, than amid 1 
that parsimony of apparatus, whose pitiful meanness operates as a temptation 
to waste and destroy." And it will always also be found that those schools- 
where the most attention has been paid to making the rooms pleasant and 
attractive to the children, will be the most orderly, and well disciplined, 
while in those held in ordinary rooms, where no attention seems to be given to 
refinement in appearances, the pupils are also proportionably unrefined and 
undisciplined. 



190 SCHOOL .ARCHITECTURE. 

" Let the communities," continues Mrs. Sigourney, in the Essay jus* 
quoted, " let the communities, now so anxious to raise the standard of edu- 
cation, venture the experiment of a more liberal adornment of the dwellings 
devoted to it. Let them put more faith in that respect for the beautiful, which 
really exists in the young heart, and requires only to be called forth and nur- 
tured, to become an ally of virtue and a handmaid to religion. Knowledge 
has a more imposing effect on the young mind, when it stands, like the Apos- 
tle with the gifts of healing, at the ' beautiful gate of the Temple.' Mem- 
ory looks back to it, more joyously, from the distant or desolated tracks of 
life, for the bright scenery of its early path." " But when the young chil- 
dren of this Republic are transferred from the nursery to those buildings, 
whose structure, imperfect ventilation, and contracted limits, furnish too 
strong an idea of a prison, the little spirits, which are in love with freedom 
and the fair face of Nature, learn to connect the rudiments of knowledge with 
keen associations of task-work, discomfort, and thraldom." " I hope the time 
is coming, when every isolated village schoolhouse shall be as an Attic temple, 
on whose exterior the occupant may study the principles of symmetry and 
of grace. Why need the structures, where the young are initiated into 
those virtues which make life beautiful, be divorced from taste, or devoid of 
comfort'?" 

" Do any reply, that ' the perception of the Beautiful' is but a luxurious sen- 
sation, and may be dispensed with in those systems of education which this 
age of utility establishes? But is not its culture the more demanded, to 
throw a healthful leaven into the mass of society, and to serve as some 
counterpoise for that love of accumulation, which pervades every rank, in- 
trudes into every recess, and spreads even in consecrated places the ' tables of 
the money-changers, and the seats of such as sell doves?' 

" In ancient times, the appreciation of whatever was beautiful in the frame 
of Nature, was accounted salutary, by philosophers and sages. Galen says, 
' He who has two cakes of bread, let him sell one, and buy some flowers ; 
for bread is food for the body, but flowers are food for the soul.' " 

" If the perception of the Beautiful may be made conducive to present im- 
provement, and to future happiness ; if it have a tendency to refine and 
sublimate the character ; ought it not to receive culture throughout the whole 
process of education ? It takes root, most naturally and deeply, in the sim- 
ple and loving heart ; and is, therefore, peculiarly fitted to the early years of 
life, when, to borrow the language of a German writer, ' every sweet sound 
takes a sweet odor by the hand, and walks in through the open door of the 
child's heart.' " 

We insert Mr. Ingraham's communication, unabridged, although it was 
drawn up by him as the material out of which we should prepare a descrip- 
tion. We have also preserved his system of punctuation and capitalizing, 
though it differs from that followed in other parts of this work. 

We think very highly of the plan of the Sheafe street School-house. 
Any objections we might entertain to some of the details, could be easily 
obviated in places where land is not so expensive as in Boston. We prefer, 
however, to see the Primary School-house with but one story, and in no 
case with more than two stories. In cities, the basement, under the school 
room, should always be paved, and fitted up for a covered play-ground, as 
is the case in Mr. Ingraham's plans. 

Mr. Ingraham, in his letter, acknowledges his obligations to Mr. F. Em- 
erson, and Dr. Henry G. Clark, for valuable aid in arranging his system of 
ventilation, and also to Mr. Joseph E. Billings, the Architect, for aid in the 
architectural arrangements, and for the manner in which the working- plans 
were drawn. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 191 

Having given so minute a description of this School-house, we shall confer 
a favor upon such of our readers as may wish to erect buildings like it, if we 
insert, entire, Me. Ingraham's original Specification for the workmen, with 
such modifications as he proposes to introduce into the new buildings, which 
are to be erected during the present year, (1848.) 

SPECIFICATION 

Of materials to be provided, and labor performed, in the erection of a Primary School- 
house, to be built on a lot of land lying upon the southerly side of Sheafe street, 
according to the plans of Joseph W. Istgraham, Chairman of the Primary School 
Committee on Schoolhouses, as exhibited in the Drawings made by Joseph E. 
Billings, Architect. 

DESCRIPTION. 

The building is t© fee three stories high ; each Story is to contain a Schoolroom, 
Recitation-rooms, Entries, and Privies, and to finish twelve feet high, in the clear. 
The first floor is to be set eighteen inches above the ground, at the front of the build- 
ing. The Cellar, under the whole building, (except the entrance to the first-story 
Schoolroom, which is to finish six feet and eight inches,) is to be finished seven and 
one half feet high, in the clear. The main building is to measure twenty-six by forty- 
four feet, upon the ground plan, above the underpinning ; the Projection on the east 
end, three and one half by twenty and one half feet ; and the Projection containing the 
Privies, four and one half by sixteen and one half feet. The Roof is to have an inclina- 
tion of thirty degrees. 

The Front and Side Walls of the main building, and the Front Walls of the Projec- 
tions, above the underpinning, and the Rear Wall of the main building and sides of 
the Projections, from the level of the ground on the rear of the lot, are to be built of 
brick 

mason's work. 

Excavating: 

The Dirt and Rubbish is to be dug out, as required, for the Cellar, the Cellar- Walls, 
the Vault, and the Drains ; and the remainder of the lot is to be graded up, on an 
inclination of one inch to a foot, from Sheafe street to the front of the building. 

All the rubbish, and the dirt that is not required for filling in, is to be removed from 
the premises. All the Loam is to be carefully taken up,lcept by itself, and spread 
srpoa the surface of the Playground, as may be directed by the Committee. 

Rough Stone. 

The Footings to all the walls and piers, and the Cellar and Foundation-walls, are to 
be built of square-split Sandy-Bay or duiney cellar -stone. The Bottom or Footing- 
course is to be puddled and rammed to a perfect bed, and those to the main walls and 
the piers, are to be laid entirely below the level of the cellar floor. The Walls are to 
be laid in lime mortar ; and those of the Cellar are to b.e faced and pointed on the 
inside. The Footings are to be eighteen inches rise. Those to the main walls are to 
be three feet in width ; those to the projections are to be two and one half feet in 
width ; and those to the piers are to be three feet square. The Front Wall of the 
Cellar is to be two feet thick, and the other Walls twenty inches. Good and sufficient 
Foundations are to be laid for the Steps, Window Curbs, &c. 

Hammered Stone. 

The Underpinning to the front walls of the main building and projections, and the 
Returns at the first-story Entranee-doors, the Steps to the Entrance-doors, the Thresh- 
olds to the Entrance-doors and Gates, the Curbs, Sills, and Caps, to the cellar-windows, 
the Curbs to the sesspool, the Fence-stone, and the Platform steps to the Entrance- 
doors, are to be of Quincy granite, of ex en color, free from sap, rust, or flaws, fine- 
kammered, with all the returns, rabbets, washes, &c., indicated by the Drawings. 
The Floors to the Privies on the first-story, a Moveable Cover to the Vault, and 
Hearth-stone in each Schoolroom, are to be of North-River Flagging-stoae. Abort 



192 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



three quarters ot the Playground is also to be laid with North-River Flagging-stone, 
as may be hereafter directed by the Committee. The rest of the Playground is to be 
left unpaved, for flower beds, &c. 

There is to be an Iron Strainer fitted to the Sesspool-cover. The Hearth-stones are 
each to be three feet square, with a circular hole in the centre, eighteen inches in 
diameter, for the admission of the cold air under the stove. 

Sand-stone. 

There is to be a set of Caps and Sills to each of the windows in the brick walls, and 
Caps to the entrance-doors. The Caps to the doors are to be four courses rise, and ten 
inches thick, and those to the third-story front windows eight and one half inches 
thick : the other Caps are to be four inches thick. The Sills to the windows are to be 
eight inches wide. The Sills and Caps to the blind-openings, in the rear wall of the 
privies, are to be of the full thickness of the wall, and finished on all sides. There is 
to be a Moulded Belt on the front, and over the east and west entrance-doors ; and a 
Base and Cap to the Chimney, of the forms shown by the Drawings. All the above is 
to be of the first quality of Connecticut free-stone ; that in the faced-brick-work is to be 
sand-rubbed, and the remainder fine-chiselled. 

All the stone-work is to be set in lime-mortar, and Cramped, Headed, and Pointed, 
as required. 

Brick-work. 

The Front Walls, above the underpinning, the Rear, Side, and Privy Walls, from 
the rough stone, the Piers in the cellar, the Backing-up of the stone-work, the Lining 
of the Vault, the Walls between the privies, the Sesspool, the Drains, and the Flues, 
are to be built of hard-burnt Charlestown (not Fresh Pond) bricks, excepting the Facing 
of the front and side walls of the main building and the front walls of the projections, 
the Covings, and the Chimney, which are to be of the first quality of pressed-brick, 
laid plumb-bond, tied into the other work with bond-irons in every seventh course. 

The Front Wall, to the top of the belting, and above the top of the third-story win- 
lows, with the corner Piers on each side, and the Rear Wall, from the bottom to the 
»p of the first-story floorings, are to be sixteen inches thick. The remainder of the 
Front and Rear Walls, the Side Walls of the main building, and the Front Walls of 
the Projections, are to be one foot thick. The Rear and Side Walls to the Privies, the 
Side Wall to the easterly Projection, and the Walls of the Sesspool, are to be eight 
inches thick. The Lining of the Vault, and the Walls between the Privies, are to be 
four inches thick. The Bottom of the Vault is to be laid three courses thick. The 
Piers in the cellar are to be sixteen inches square, on the ground. 

The Vault, (which is to be of the sesspool plan, and so arranged, that no solid matter 
shall remain in the vault, but shall all pass off into the common sewer,) Sesspool, 
Drains, Wall between the privies, and the Hollow Wall between the privies and 
main building, are to be laid throughout with cement-mortar, and plastered inside, 
throughout, with the same. The remainder of the brick -work is to he done with lime- 
mortar. The Drains are to be barrel-form, the larger one to be of sixteen inches bore, 
and the smaller ones, one foot. The Vaults are to be not less than six feet deep. 

The Cellar, and the Passage-way from the east end of the building, out to Margaret 
Avenue, are to be paved with the best paving-brick, on perfect foundations of gravel 
and sand. 

The Cold-air Flues are to be twelve by eighteen inches, inside, and the Smoke Flues 
eight inches square, inside, all smoothly plastered, inside and out, with a stout coat of 
lime-mortar. The Flues are to be arranged as shown in the diagram. [See p. 182.] 

The Cold-air Flue or Box, leading horizontally into the room to the aperture under 
the Stove, is also to be thoroughly and smoothly plastered, and made perfectly secure 
from danger by fire, in case of live coals or ashes dropping into it from the Stove. It 
is to be fitted with a valve, having a handle in the room, to regulate the admission of 
air. 

Lathing and Plastering. 

All the Walls, Ceilings, and Stairways, throughout the first, second, and third 
stories of the main building and the Projections, and the Ceiling of the Cellar, are to 
be Lathed and Plastered with a stout coat of lime and hair, and hard-finished ; smoothly, 
with lime and sand, for painting ; excepting the Ceiling of the Cellar, which is to be 
finished on the hair-coat, and the Wall between the main building and the privies, 
which is to be plastered upon the bricks. The Walls of the Cellar are to be white- 
washed with three coats. 

Care must be taken, that the beads on the corners of the walls and stairways ari act 
plastered. The quirks are to be neatly cut, and the beads kept clean. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 193 

Slates, Slating, tyc. 

Smoothly-polished Slates are to be set into the back wall of each Schoolroom, on 
each side of the Ventilating Pier, and neatly finished around the edges. They are to 
be two and a half feet wide, and ten feet in the whole length. They may be m slabs 
of five feet each, in length.* 

The Roof is to be Slated with the best of Ladies' Slates, put on with Composition- 
nails, and properly secured with flashings of sheet lead, weighing three-and-one-half- 
pounds to the square foot, and warranted perfectly tight for two years. 

Coppering. 

There are to be moulded Copper Gutters, on the front and sides of the main building 
and front and rear of the Projections, worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per foot. 
They are to run back six inches under the slates. 

There are to be two four-inch-square Trunks, from the gutters to the water-butts in 
the cellar ; three-inch ones from the rear of the Projections to the Vault ; and a round 
one from each butt to the vault. The Trunks are to be made of twenty -four-ounce 
cold-rolled copper, put up, connected with the gutters, and led off in a proper manner, 
with suitable lead pipes, of three inches in diameter. 

Iron-work. 

There is to be in each Smoke Flue an Iron Casting, with a funnel-hole twenty-four 
inches from the floor, and a hole below for clearing out the mouth of the flue ; each 
hole to be fitted with a tight stopper. 

There is to be an Iron Fence, on the line of Sheafe street, across the whole front, 
with two Gates, and an Iron Grate at the entrance of the back passage, on Margaret 
Avenue. All the Gates are to be fitted with Lever Locks, and Latches, of the best 
quality, and small duplicate keys. 

There is to be an Iron Grating to each of the cellar- window curbs, of inch-and-a- 
quarter by one-quarter-inch bars, set one inch from centre to centre ; and wire netting 
above it in front of the windows. 

All the Iron-work is to be painted with three coats of lacker. 

There are to be stout Iron Scrapers, placed at each door, where directed by the Com- 
mittee. 

There are to be an Iron Strainer to the Sesspool Cover, and Strong Iron Rings to 
the Moveable Cover of the Vault. 

There are to be Composition Rods, in all the angles formed by the meeting of the 
ceilings and inner walls, in the Schoolrooms and Recitation-rooms, attached by neat 
staples, and fitted with Moveable Brass Rings, at suitable distances, for hanging charts, 
maps, &c. 

CARPENTERS' WORK. 

Framing. 

The Floors and Roofs are to be Framed in the manner indicated by the Drawings, 
with good sound spruce lumber, of the following dimensions : 

Principal Flooring-Joists, 3 by 14 inches. 

Short Flooring- Joists, 3 " 11 " 

Trimmers and Headers, 5 " 14 " 

Partition Studs, 2 " 4 " 

Privy-Floor Joists 2 " 10 " 

Attic-Floor Joists, 2 " 10 " 

Ties to Roof Trusses, 7 " 10 " 

Rafters to Trusses 7 " 12 " 

Collars, 7 " 9 " 

Purlins, 8 " 8 " 

Wall Plates, . . 3 " 8 " 

Small Rafters, 3 " 6 " 

The Flooring-Joists are to be worked to a mould, crowning one inch. They are to 
nave a fair bearing of four inches on the walls, at each end, and to be bridged with 
two lines of Cross Bridging. 

The Trusses in the Roof are to be fitted with Wrought-iron Bolts, one inch in 
diameter, with Heads, perfect Screws, and large Washers and Nuts. 

* These large Slates may be procured in Boston, and cost no more than good Blackboards. 
When it is not convenient to obtain them, the walls, where Blackboards are needed, may be 
adapted to the purpose, by mixing the Plastering or Hard-finish with Lampblack, rubbing it dowa 
smoothly, and allowing it to become perfectly dry and hard before it is used. Or, Blackboard* 
may be covered with the composition mentioned on p. 197. 

13 



194 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The Floor-Joists are to be framed into the Trimmers, and the Ceiling-Joists of the 
third story into the Ties of the Roof- Trusses, with Tusk- Tenons, and properly secured 
with hard-wood Pins. 

All the Partitions in the main building are to be set with two-by-four-inch plank 
Studs, so as to give five nailings to a lath, thoroughly bridged throughout, and trussed 
over the openings. 

There is to be a Lintel, four by eight inches, over each window, and other opening 
in the walls that requires it, and under the withs of the Privies, with a fair bearing 
of eight inches at each end. 

Enclosing. 

The Under-Floors of the Rooms, Entries, Passages, Platforms, and Privies, in each 
story, and the Floor of the Attic, are to be laid with No. 3 Pine boards, planed, jointed, 
laid close, and thoroughly nailed. The Roofs are to be covered with Matched boards, 
of the same quality, and thoroughly nailed. 

Furring. 

All the Walls, throughout, (excepting the cellar walls, the back walls of the several 
privies, and the side walls of the privies next to the main building,) and all the Ceil- 
ings, Entries, and Stairways, are to be Furred with three-inch Furrings of sound, sea- 
soned, dry No. 3 Pine boards, spaced so as to give five nailings to a lath. They are 
to be put on the walls with twelve-penny nails, and on the ceilings with ten-pennies. 

Grounds, three-fourths of an inch thick, are to be put up for all the finish, and three- 
quarter-inch Beads on all the angles and corners of the walls and stairways. The 
Beads are to be kept clean. 

There are to be two Strips of Furring put up, (for convenience in driving nails for 
hanging charts, &c.,) extending entirely around the Schoolrooms, at distances of three 
and eight inches from the ceilings ; and also similar Strips for the same purpose, set 
perpendicularly, on the rear and sidewalls, as directed by the Committee. Also, Com- 
position Rods, in the angles of the ceiling, all round the rooms, with Moveable Rings at 
suitable distances, for picture lines. 

Cold-air Boxes, and Ventiducts. 

The Cold Air is to be taken in at one of the cellar-window openings, which is to be 
finished outside with a plank frame and coarse iron-wire netting. 

The Air is to be conducted into the Brick Cold-air Flue of each Schoolroom, in 
separate Boxes, each twelve by eighteen inches, inside, made of thoroughly-seasoned 
Pine boards, smoothed on the inside, and put together with two-inch screws. 

The Ventiducts, or Ventilating-Flues, are also to be made of thoroughly-seasoned Pine 
boards, smoothed on the inside, and put together with two-inch screws. There is to 
be a separate one for each Schoolroom, and the Privies, and each is to be fitted with 
two Swivel-blind Openings, or Registers, one at the floor and the other at the ceil- 
ing, with Stay-rods to regulate them, as may be directed by the Committee. 

There are to be two Closets on each side of this Pier, in the first story, and on one 
side, in the second story, as shown in the diagram, on p. 183. 

The Ventiducts, or Ventilating-Flues, for the Schoolrooms, are each to be sixteen 
Inches square, inside ; that for the Privies is to be ten inches square, inside. The 
Swivel-blind Openings in the Schoolrooms are to be sixteen by twenty-four inches ; 
and those in the Privies are to be ten inches square. 

The Ventiducts, or Ventilating-Flues, for the Schoolrooms, are to be brought together 
in the attic, and connected with the Ventilator on the main Roof. 

The Ventiduct, or Ventilating-Shaft, for the Privies, is to be ten inches square, and 
carried down to within one foot of the surface of the water in the Vault or Sesspool ; 
and the air from this Shaft, and also from the space between the privies and the maid 
building, is to be conducted in a tight box over the ceilings of the third-story privies, 
to the Ventilator on the ridge. 

Windows and Blinds. 

All the Windows, (excepting those in the cellar,) are to have Double Box Frames, 
with two-inch pine plank Sills and Yokes, inch inside and outside Casings, one-and- 
one-fourth-inch hard-pine Pulley-styles, five-eighths-of-an-inch Inside Beads, and five- 
sixteenths-of-an-inch Parting Beads. 

The Sashes are to be made of pine, one-and-three-fourths-inch thick, moulded and 
coped. They are all to be double hung with the best White Window Lines, Iron 
Pulleys with steel axles, and Round Iron Counter-weights. All the Sashes are to be 
fastened with strong Bronzed Sash-fastenings, of the best quality, to cost five dollars 
and fifty cents per dozen. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOTJSE, BOSTON. 195 

All the Windows in the first and second stories are to be fitted with one-and-one- 
fourth-inch Framed Blinds, two parts to each window, hung in light Box-frames, with 
Weights, Lines, and Pulleys, in the same manner as the sashes, excepting that they 
are to run up above the tops of the windows, in close boxes, and to have satisfac- 
tory Knobs, Rings, or Handles, on the bottom rails, to draw them down. 

The Windows in the third story are to have Inside Shutter-Blinds, one inch thick, 
made in eight parts to each window, hung with Iron Butt-hinges, and fitted with 
Bronzed Hooks and Staples, and Rosewood Knobs. 

The Openings in the Rear Wall of the Privies are to have Stationary Blinds, four 
inches thick, and reaching to the floors. The Windows in the Front Wall are to have 
Outside Blinds, one-and-three-fourths-inch thick, hung and fastened in the usual 
manner. 

All the Windows, and the Openings in the Privy- Walls, are to be finished with one- 
and-one-fourth-inch moulded Architraves, with turned Corner-blocks. [Care to be 
taken to have no Architraves or Corner-blocks omitted on one side, or cut partly off.] 
Those in the first story are to have panel Jambs, and Soffits and Stools. Those in the 
second story, and all the Openings in the Privies, are to have Edge and Sill Casings. 
Those in the third story are to have Elbows to the Shutter-boxes, moulded panel Sof- 
fits, and wide Stools. 

The Cellar-Windows are to be made with plank Frames, rabbeted for the sashes ; 
and are to have Single Sashes, hung with Iron Butt-hinges to the tops of the frames, 
fastened with strong Iron Buttons, and fitted with Catches to bold them open when 
desired. 

There is to be a Single Stationary Sash over each Entrance-door, made in six lights. 

There are to be two Skylights in the Roof, which are to be made and hung in a neat 
and substantial manner, and properly fitted to rise and fasten. 

There is to be a Scuttle, in the ceiling of the third story, made, cased, and hung, in 
a neat and substantial manner. 

Doors. 

All the Doors, throughout, (excepting the Outside ones, which are to be two-and- 
one-fourth-inches thick, and the Closet doors, which are to be one-and-one-fourth- 
inch thick,) are to be two inches thick, made in four moulded Panels each, hung with 
three four-inch iron Butt-hinges, and fastened (excepting the outside ones) with Rob- 
inson's best $2,50 Mortise Locks, with Catches and Bolts, Rosewood Knobs, Bronzed 
Trimmings, and small duplicate Keys to each. The Outside Doors are to be fastened 
with double-bolt Lever Locks of the best quality, having duplicate keys as small as 
practicable. The Privy Doors are to have strong Door-sprmgs, in addition to the other 
trimmings. 

All the Inside Doors, excepting those to the closets, are to be finished with hard- 
pine Sills, two-inch rabbeted and beaded Frames, and Architraves as described for 
the Windows, with Plinths. The doors, in every case, to be set so far from the walls, 
as to give the full Architraves and Corner-blocks on both sides. 

The Outside Doors are to be hung to three-inch plank Frames, properly dogged to 
the thresholds and wall, and finished inside like the Inside Doors. 

The Entrance and Cellar Doors are to be four feet by seven feet eight inches. The 
Inside Doors are to be three feet by seven feet four inches. The Privy Doors are to be 
two feet six inches, by seven feet four inches. 

Stairs. 

The Stairs are to be framed with deep plank Stringers and Winders, as shown by 
the Drawings. They are to be finished with hard-pine Risers, one inch thick, Treads 
one-and-one-fourth-inch thick, and Balusters one-and-one-eighth-inch diameter. The 
String and Gallery finish is to be of white pine, and the Posts, Newels, and Rails, of 
cherry. The bottom Posts are to be seven inches in diameter, turned, and the Rails 
three inches wide. The Rails are to be not less than three feet high, measuring from 
the nosing of the Steps. 

There are to be two Flights of Stairs to the Cellar, framed with plank Stringers and 
Winders, and finished with planed pine Risers and Treads, and close Partitions one- 
and-one-half-inch thick, matched and planed. 

There is to be a neat Flight of Portable Steps, to ascend from the third story to the 
Attic, and others to ascend from the Attic to the Skylight in the Roof. 

Skirting'. 

The Rooms, Entries, Stairways, and Privies, are to be Skirted up as high as the 
window stools, in the respective stories, (except on the back sides of the Rooms,) with 
narrow matched beaded Lining, not to exceed seven inches in width, Capped to cor- 
respond with the nosing of the window stools. The Lining is to be gauged to a 



196 SCHOOL ABCHITECTUBE. 

width, and set perpendicularly. That on the back Wall is to be fitted to the Slates w 
that wall, which are to rest on the Capping. That in the first story is to be of cherry- 
wood, the second story of maple, and the third story of white-pine, wrought and fin- 
ished smoothly, suitable for being stained and varnished without painting. 

Floorings, tyc. 

The Platforms are to be furred up, as shown by the Drawings, and the Stairways, 
Platforms, and Hearths, are to be bordered, and the Floors to be laid, with narrow 
hard-pine floorings, perfectly jointed and thoroughly nailed. The Strips are to be 
gauged to a width respectively in the schoolrooms, and the joints are to be broken, at 
least three feet, so that no two strips of different widths will but on to each other. 

Cabinets, Closets, Clothes- Hooks, <$•<?. 

There are to be two Cabinets, in each Schoolroom, between the windows, above the 
skirting, and as high as the windows, with double cherry Sash-doors, each hung with 
three Brass Hinges, fastened with Thumb-catches and Locks, and fitted with Rosewood 
Knobs. There are to be twelve Shelves in each, and immediately below them are to 
be small Closets, with four Shelves in each, and double Doors, hung and fastened in 
the same manner as the sash doors. The shelves are to be placed as directed by the 
Committee. Six of them are to be inclined, with two narrow ledges on each. 

There are to be two Closets in each side of the Ventilating Pier, in the First Story, 
and two in one side in the Second Story, as shown at o o, in the diagram on page 183. 
Each Closet is to be fitted with three shelves, and the doors are to be hung ana fastened 
in the same manner as the Closets under the Cabinets. 

There is to be for each Schoolroom, where directed by the Committee, a Press- 
closet, having three Shelves on one side, with six brass double Hat-and-Coat-Hooks, 
on beaded cherry-wood cleats ; the Door to be neatly hung, fastened, and trimmed, 
similar to the other doors. 

There is to be in the entry of each Schoolroom, where directed by the Committee, a 
Closet, for brushes, brooms, coal-hod, &c, two by three-and-one-half feet, made with 
matched boards, and fitted with three Shelves on one side, and eight Hooks on the 
other side and back. The Door is to be made, hung, and fastened, to correspond with 
the other doors. 

There is to be a Sink, attached to each Schoolroom, where directed by the Commit- 
tee, made of two-inch pine plank, the top hung with stout hinges, and with Drawers and 
Cupboards below. It is to be fitted with a Composition Sesspool, lined with zinc, and 
a lead Waste-pipe, leading to the vault. Suitable Pipes, to lead the City water into 
the sink in each story, are to be provided. 

There is to be a Dumb-waiter from the cellar to the third story, opening into each 
story, for raising coals, wood, &c. 

There are to be seventy extra-stout iron double Hat-and-Coat-Hooks, to each School- 
room, put up on beaded cherry-wood Cleats, as directed by the Committee. 

There are to be two Umbrella-stands, in each Entry, to hold six umbrellas each. 

Coal-Bins, fyc. 

There are to be three Coal- Bins in the Cellar, each capable of holding three tons of 
Coal, having Covers hung with strong wrought-iron Hinges, and sliding Gates, with 
boxings around them to keep the Coal fromthe floor. Also, three Closets for Kin- 
dlings, the doors to be hung with iron Strap-hinges, and fastened with iron Buttons. 

There are also to be in the Cellar, two large iron-bound Water-butts, with metal 
Faucets. 

Privy- Finish. 

The Privies are to be fitted with pine Risers, Seats, and Covers. The Covers are 
to be hung with stout Duck, or India-rubber cloth, instead of metal Hinges ; the 
edges of the cloth to be covered with narrow slats. They are to be so arranged, that 
they will fall of themselves when left. There is to be a Box for paper in each Privy, 
and the Boys' Privies are to have Troughs, lined with zine, with Sesspools. The 
whole finish of the Privies is to be equal to that of the other parts of the building. 

Painting. 

All the Hard- wood Finish, (except the Skirting of the first and second stories, which 
is to be varnished,) is to be oiled, with two coats of boiled Linseed-oil, well rubbed in 
with cloth. 

All the Outside wood-work, the Copper-trunks, and the inner walls throughout, are 
to be prepared and painted with three coats of Oil-and-Lead paint, of such color as the 
Committee may direct. The Outside^doors are to be painted Bronze. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 197 

The Insides of the Closets and Cabinets are to be painted white, and the Teachers' 
Platforms in imitation of Marble. The Blinds are to be painted with four coats of 
Paris Green, and Varnished. The third-story skirting is to be stained with asphal- 
tum, and- varnished. The rest of the Inside Pine Finish is to be Putty-stopped, Primed, 
and Painted and Grained, in imitation of Oak, Maple, or other color, as directed by 
the Committee, and Varnished. 

All the Painting and Varnishing is to be equal to that of first-class dwelling-houses. 

Glazing. 

All the Sashes, throughout, are to be glazed with Crystal Sheet Glass, of double 
thickness, and of the best quality. Each light is to be properly Bedded, Sprigged, 
and Back-Puttied. 

The Windows are to hare Lights of the following dimensions, as shown in the 
Drawings : 

First Story, Front Windows, eighteen Lights, each eleven by fourteen inches. First 
Story, Rear Window, twelve Lights, each eleven by sixteen inches. That in the west 
wall, eight Lights, each eleven by sixteen inches. 

Second Story, Front Windows, eighteen Lights, each eleven by fourteen inches. 
Second Story, Rear Windows, eight and twelve Lights, each eleven by sixteen inches. 
Front Window in easterly Projection., twelve Lights, each eleven by fourteen inches. 

Third Story, Front Windows, twelve Lights, each eleven by nineteen inches. Third 
Story, Rear Windows, eight and twelve Lights, each eleven by fifteen inches. Front 
Windows in easterly Projection, eight Lights, each eleven by nineteen inches. 

The Cellar Windows, eight Lights, each eight by ten inches. 

The Sashes over the Doors, each six Lights. 

The Skylights are to be two feet six inches by three feet six inches. 

Ventilators. 
There are to be two of Emerson's Patent Ventilators, of galvanized iron ; one on 
the Roof of the Main Building, twenty-five inches in diameter, and another on the 
Roof of the Privies, twelve inches in diameter. 

Furniture. 
Eaeh Schoolroom is to be furnished with sixty Small Arni-Chairs, of Mr. Ingba- 
ham's pattern, such as are used in the other Primary Schools in the City.* Also, with 
a Table, for the Teacher's Platform, four feet by two, (made of Mahogany, Black Wal- 
nut, or Cherry-wood, as directed by the Committee,) furnished with two Drawers, and 
fitted with Locks, Keys, and Rosewood Knobs, of the best quality. 

Memorandum. 

No bricks, stone, lumber, or other building-materials, of any description, are to be 
placed on the garden-plat ; and the Trees and Garden are to have a rough box built 
around them, for their preservation from injury. No lines are to be fastened to the 
Trees, for any purpose whatever. 

All the Lumber is to be well and thoroughly seasoned ; and all that is in sight is to 
be free from Shakes, Sap, and Knots ; and that and every part of the work is to be equal 
to any used in first-class dwelling-houses. 



MS, ingraham's composition for blackboards. 

Lampblack and Flour of Emery, mixed with Spirit-Varnish. 

No more Lampblaek and Flour of Emery should be used, than are sufiicient to give 
She required black and abrading surface ; and the Varnish should contain only sufficient 
gum to hold the ingredients together, and eonfine the Composition to the Board. The 
ihinner the mixture, the better. 

The Lampblack chould first be ground with a small quantity of Alcohol, or Spirit- 
Varnish, to free it from lumps. 

The Composition should be applied to the smoothly-planed surface of a Board, with 
a common painter's brush. Let it become thoroughly dry and hard before it is used. 
Rub it down with pumice-stone, or a piece of smooth wood covered with the Compo- 
sition. 

Boards prepared in this way are almost equal to Slates, and will last for years ; and 
they can be used with slate-peneils, which are much better than crayons or chalk, on 
account of their freedom from dust and dirt. Crayon or chalk dust is deleterious to 
feealth, as well as to cleanliness. 

This Composition may also be used on the walls. 

* See pp. and 181. 



198 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



Plans, &c, of Brimmer Grammar School, Boston. 

This building was erected in 1843. It is situated on Common-street, near 
Washington. It is 74 leet in length on the street, by 52 feet deep, with 
three stories. The entrance is in the center of the front into a hall 8 feet 
wide, leading through into the yard in the rear, which is divided by a wall 
into three portions. The passage to the second and third floors is by a double 
flight of stairs near liie front door. 

The first floor is occupied by two Primary School-rooms, each 30 by 22 
feet, and 11 feet high ; and the Ward-room, 30 by 50 feet. 

The school-room on the second floor is 70 feet by 37 feet wide, and 14 feet 
6 inches high between the bays. The ceiling is plastered up between the 
bays, (cross timbers) by which eighteen inches are grained in height, dividing 
the ceiling into equal compartments. There are two recitation rooms, one 



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on each side the entrance, 17 feet 6 inches, by 11 feet 4 inches each, with 
two windows in each room, and benches on all the sides for the pupils. The 
school-room is lighted on three sides, and contains 118 desks, and 236 chairs, 
two chairs to each desk, the desks and chairs being of four sizes. The tops 
of the desks are cherry wood, and the chairs are Walesl patent. The desks 
are separated by aisles one foot four inches in width, except the center aisle, 
which is two feet wide. 

The aisles on the side nearest the recitation-rooms, are three feet wide, 
and those at each end, 2 feet 6 inches each. The platform on which are 
the desks of the master and assistants, is eight inches high, and 6 feet 6 



BRIMMER GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, BOSTON. 



139 



Inches wide, and the desks are so placed that the pupils sit with their backs 
to the platform ; and the pupils are so arranged at the desks in classes and 
sections, that when one class is reciting, the desk is only occupied by one 
pupil. The windows are shaded by inside blinds painted green. 

The school-room on the third floor is of the same size, having an arched 
ceiling 13 feet high in the center, with recitation-rooms and other arrange- 
ments similar to the school-room on the second floor. 

The building is warmed by two furnaces, and ventilated by six flues, dis- 
charging into the attic, from which the impure air is carried off by copper 
ventilators in the roof. The openings into the flues in the school-rooms are 
controlled by Preston's ventilators. 

The frame of Preston's Ventilator is made of a flat bar of iron 2| by ~ 
inch, framed at the corners, the end at each corner running by in order >,. 
receive a clamp to screw the frame to the brick work ; the door is of plate 
iron, (yg- wire gage), with a rod passing down the center of the plate, on the 
back side, each end of the rod running by the plate and entering the frame, 
forming a pivot on which the plate or door of the. ventilator turns. The 
door shuts against a projection in the frame. 



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Hrvmary, School . 

30-6 * 22 
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Primary School. 
30-6x22 



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30-6 x 50 



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The Brimmer school has two masters, one in each room, and each withi 
an usher and female assistant. 

[Since the above description was first published, (in 1843) the seats and. 1 
desks have been reversed, so that the pupils sit with their faces to the plat- 
form- The former method was found by the teacher to be " very incon- 
venient, and wholly impracticable. The scholar should see the face and' 
hear the voice of the Principal as much as possible."] 



200 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The second and third stories are furnished with Wales' Patent American 
School Chair, which has been very extensively introduced into the public 
schools ot Boston and vicinity. 



Wales' American School Chair. 

The seat of the chair is based upon a 
pedestal of cast iron, having no joining to 
get loose or come apart in the arm, and 
is made fast by screws both to the seat 
and to the floor. The back of the chair 
is firmly supported by the middle piece, 
which passes directly from the top 
through a dove-tail in the seat into the 
foot of the pedestal. These chairs are 
manufactured by S. Wales, Jr., 66 Kil- 
by street, Boston, of any height from 8 
inches to 17 inches from the top surface 
of the seat to the floor. 

Mr. Wales has, during the present 
year, (1848,) greatly improved the style 
of his chairs, and now manufactures a 
desk with iron supports of new and im- 
proved construction. For description, 
see p. 202. 



thp T 5l^ Sks in the Brimmer Scho °l are more like the one represented in 
the accompanying section of desk and chair used in the Eliot Grammai 

O A. JLi. 






3ft. HIT, 



The cut below represents the bench used in the Primary School The 
scholars are separated by a compartment, A, which serves as a rest 'for the 
arm, and place of deposit for books. 




BOSTON SCHOOL FURNITURE. 



201 



Since the foregoing style of chair and desk was introduced, much atten- 
tion has been paid to the improvement of school furniture, with a view 
of securing convenience, durability, and economy, in the construction both 
of chairs and desks. 

The Boston Latin High School Desk. 




The above cut represents an end view of a new style of desk used 
in the Latin High School, in Bedford street, with a section of Wales' 
Patent School Chair. The standards of the desks are made of cast 
iron, and are braced in such a manner, that when properly secured to the 
floor, there is not the least motion. The curve in the standard facilitates 
the use of the broom in sweeping. 



The Boston Primary School Chair. 

These Chairs were got up for the special benefit of the Boston Primary 
Schools, by Joseph W. Ingraham, Esq., Chairman of the Primary School 
Standing Committee; and have already been introduced, by order of the 
Primary School Board, into the greater portion of their Schools. 






The first pattern, is a Chair with a Shelf (s) under the seat, for the purpose 
■of holding the Books, Slates, &c. of the scholars. 

The second pattern differs from the first, in having, instead of the Shelf a 
Rack (a) on the back of the chair, for the same use as the Shelf in the pre- 
ceding pattern. The third pattern is similar to the second, except that the 
Rack (a) is placed at the side, instead of the back, of the chair. The latter pat- 
tern (with the Rack on the side) is that now adopted in the Boston Schools. 

These chairs are manufactured by William G. Shattuck, No. 80 Commercial 
Street, Boston. The price is fifty cents, each, for those with the Shelf, and 
sixbii-five cents for those with the Rack. 



202 school architecture. 

Wales' School Chairs and Desks. 




Wales' American School Chairs and Desk. 

The figures above represent the largest size of Chairs and Desk, as 
described in the series of sizes below, the height decreasing as there stated 
from size to size. 

The Chairs represented in the above cut are based upon a single pedestal 
of iron, (instead of the. usual legs of a chair ;) the wood-work of the Chair is 
fastened securely upon the top of the pedestal, the middle piece passes directly 
from the top into the foot of the pedestal, and the whole is firmly screwed to 
the floor of the school-room. 

The Desk above is intended for two scholars, being in form and style, both 
in wood and iron, of the latest pattern. 

The supports of the Desk are of iron, so constructed as to be entirely out 
of the way of the scholar, and at the same time light in form, and perfectly 
strong and firm in their position. They are secured to the wood-work at the 
top, and screwed firmly to the floor of the school-room at the bottom. 

The whole plan embraces Chairs and Desks in seven sizes, as follows : 



First size. 
Second size. 
Third size. 
Fourth size. 
Fifth size. 
Sixth size. 
Seventh size. 



Chair 9 inches high, Desk, side next the scholar, 17 inches. 



19 

21 

23i 

25 

26* 

28 



Thus combining a mode of furnishing public schools, for scholars of all ages, 
which, for comfort, durability, and ultimate economy, is believed to be 
unequalled. These Chairs have been very generally adopted in the Schools in 
Boston and the New England States. The Chairs or Desks, or any desired 
sizes of either, can be had separately. 



wales' school chairs and desks. 203 




Wales' Bowdoin School Chair and Desk 

The Chair above represented is finished with a very graceful scroll top 
and ornamental centre, the latter passing from the top through a dovetail in 
the seat, directly into the foot of the iron pedestal upon which it is based, 
thereby securing an unequalled degree of strength and durability, with com- 
fort and beauty. The iron pedestals are secured firmly to the wood- work at 
the top, and are then screwed immovably to the floor pf the school -room. 

The Desk is for a single scholar, but can be made of any length in the 
same fashion, accommodating any number of scholars which may be needful. 
It rests upon iron supports, of a new and improved construction, which 
secures great firmness and strength. 

A comparison of this cut with that preceding, will show that while the or- 
namental in form has been introduced in the Bowdoin School Chair, the more 
important elements of strength, durability and comfort, which experience has 
accorded to the American School Chair, have not been omitted. One 
secures every attainable degree of strength and comfort, at the lowest price, 
Avhile the other adds to all these a greater beauty of style, with the price 
increased in proportion. 

The size in the drawing is of a Chair of 16 inches, with a Desk of 28 
inches in height, being the largest of the series of seven sizes, which may be 
found on a preceding page, in the description of the American School Chair. 

560 of these Chairs are in use in the Bowdoin School, and 672 in the 
Quincy School, in Boston. 

The Desk is of a later pattern than those in either of the schools named. 
Chairs or Desks of this style, or any sizes of them, can be had separately, if 
desired. 

It is now about ten years, since the manufacturer first invented and adopted 
the iron pedestal, as the base for School Chairs, and although the introduc- 
tion of this new principle has been slow, it has, nevertheless, been sure and 
satisfactory. 

The knowledge of this mode of setting up School Chairs and Desks on 
pedestals, or on fancy forms of iron, as illustrated by the accompanying cuts 
has been widely extended, and has met with the universal approbation of ex- 
perience. 



204 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




"Wales' Hancock School Chair and Desk. 

The figures above represent the largest of a series of seven sizes, as 
described on a preceding page. 

The Desk is for a single scholar, with a single chair. The supports, both 
of the Chairs and Desks, are of iron, secured firmly to the wood-work of the 
Chair or Desk at the top, and to the floor of the school-room at the bottom. 

560 of these Chairs, with single Desks, are in the Hancock School, in 
Boston. 

The Desk represented in the drawing is of a later, and, it is believed, a 
better pattern in several respects, than those in the Hancock School. 

Chairs or Desks of this description are furnished separately, when 
desired. 

The greatly increased demand for School Furniture of this description, and 
indeed for an improvement in School Furniture of all kinds, has induced the 
subscriber to establish a Manufactory, where, under his own direction, 
all kinds of School Furniture will be manufactured in the best manner. 

Every article from this establishment will be warranted. 

Before closing these notices, it is proper to observe that drawings rarely 
give the complete idea of the thing, either in style or proportion, especially 
when small objects are intended to be represented . At the Ware-room of the 
Manufacturer, samples of all the foregoing styles of Desks and Chairs are 
set up, as if in actual use ; and all persons who feel interest or curiosity in 
such matters are invited to visit and examine them. It is only by such an 
investigation that the complete idea can be realized. Orders by mail or 
otherwise will be executed with the same promptness and fidelity as if pre- 
sented in person. 

S. Wales, Jr., No. 14 Bromfield street, Boston. 

The foregoing drawings and description of School Chairs and School Desks, 
manufactured by S. Wales, Jun., 14 Bromfield street, Boston, Mass., are 
copied from the circular of the manufacturer, by permission. 



ROSS'S SCHOOL FURNITURE. 
Ross's School Chair and Desk. 



205 




The above cut represents a new style of school chair and desk, manu- 
factured by Joseph L. Ross, corner of Ivers and Hopkins streets, Boston. 

" The legs, or supports of the desk and seat, are of cast-iron, of clas- 
sical design, conveniently shaped in reference to sweeping, and are firmly 
secured to the wood-work of the chair and desk, and to the floor. 

The chairs are made of seven sizes, viz. : 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 
inches high from the floor to the upper surface of the seat ; and the desks 
are manufactured to correspond to the size of the chairs." 

These has been introduced into the new Public High School-house, 
Cambridge, and in Charlestown, and into several of the new Grammar 
School-houses in Boston, and have given entire satisfaction wherever they 
have been introduced. 

Mr. Ross also manufactures tables and desks for the use of teachers, 
eases for apparatus, and for library, and other furniture for school-rooms." 

Mr. Ross also manufactures a style of school desk, with seat attached, 
which has been introduced very extensively into village and country dis- 
tricts in Rhode Island, and is recommended wherever a rigid economy 
must be observed in furnishing a school-room. The end-piece, or sup- 
ports, both of the desk and seat, are of cast-iron, and the wood-work is 
attached by screws. They are made of eight sizes, giving a seat from 
ten inches to seventeen, and a desk at the edge next to the scholar from 
seventeen to twenty-six inches from the floor. 




206 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan and Description of Bowdoin Grammar School-House. 

The new Bowdoin School-house, completed in 1848. is situated on Myrtle 
street, and with the yard occupies an area of about 75 feet by 68 feet, bounded 
on each of the four sides by a street. It is built of brick with abasement story 
of hammered granite, and measures 75 feet 9 inches extreme length by 54 feet 6 
inches extreme breadth — having three stories, the first and second being 13 feet, 
and the third, 15 feet high in the clear. The ground descends rapidly from 
Myrtle street, thereby securing a basement of 15 feet in the rear. One third of 
which is finished into entries, or occupied by three furnaces, coal bins, pumps, 
&c, and the remaining two thirds is open to the yard, thereby affording a cov- 
ered play-ground for the pupils. 

The third story is finished into one hall 72 feet long by 38 feet wide, with seats 
and desks for 180 pupils. On the south side of this hall there are two recita- 
tion rooms, each 16 feet by 12 feet, and a room for a library, &c. There are 
three rooms of the same size on the two floors below. 

The second story is divided into two rooms by a partition wall, each of which 
is 35 feet by 38, and accommodates 90 pupils, and so connected by sliding doors 
that all the pupils of both schools can be brought under the eye and voice of the 
teacher. 

The first story corresponds to the second, except there are no sliding doors in 
the partition, and no connection between the room except through the front 
entry. The two rooms on this floor have each seats and desks for 100 pupils. 

Each story is thoroughly ventilated, and warmed by one of Chilson's Fur- 
naces. In each furnace the air chambers, the apertures for conducting the cold 
air into them, and the flues for constructing the heated air into the rooms in 
each story, being all large, a great quantity of warm air is constantly rushing 
into the rooms, and the ventilating flues or ventiducts being so constructed and 
arranged that the air of the rooms will be frequently changed, and that a pure 
and healthy atmosphere will at all times be found in each of these rooms, pro- 
vided the furnaces are properly and judiciously managed. On the top of the 
building there are two of Emerson's large ventilators, connected with the attic 
and ventilating flues, through which the impure air passes out into the atmos- 
phere above. 

To accommodate pupils who come to school with wet feet or clothes, there 
is an open fire in a grate in one of the recitation rooms. 

Each room is furnished with Wales' American School Chair, and Ross's Desk, 
and both desk and chair are in material, form and style, as described on page 
202 and 205. 

This is a school for girls only, and consists of two departments, one of which 
is called the Grammar department, and the other the Writing department; the 
master of each department being independent of the other. 

The number of assistant female teachers in each department of this school, 
when full, will be four, the teachers in each department being independent of 
the master and teacher in the other. 

The master of the Grammar department and two of his assistants will occupy 
the large hall in the third story, and his other two assistants will occupy one of 
the rooms in the first story. 

The master of the writing department and two of his assistants will occupy 
the rooms in the second story, and his other two assistants will occupy the 
other room in the first story, each master being the superintendence of his own 
department. 

The school, when full, will be divided into five classes, and each class into 
two divisions, nearly equal in numbers. The first week after the vacation in 
August, the first division of each class will attend in the grammar department 
in the morning, and the second division of each class will attend in the writing 
department ; and in the afternoon, the second division of each class will attend 
in the grammar department, and the first, in the writing department. The next 
week, this order of attendance is to be reversed, and this alteration is to con- 
tinue through the year, the weeks of vacation not being counted. 

This house and the Gluincy Grammar School-house are built after designs by 
Mr. Bryant. 



BOWDOIN GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE. 
Plan op First and Second Floor. 



207 




A, A, Entrance for Pupils. 

B, Ditto for Teacher. 

C, C, Study halls, each 35 by 38 feet ; 
with seats and desks for 100 pupils. 

D, Sliding door, by which the two 
rooms on the second floor are thrown 
into one. 

E, Study hall, 72 feet by 38. 

F, F, Two recitation rooms on each 
floor, 16 feet by 12. 

G, Room 10 feet by 12, for library, ap- 
paratus, &c. 



H, Ross' desk, and Wales' chair. 

P, Teacher's platform with desk for 
teacher and assistants. 

S, S, Staircase leading to second and 
third floors. 

a, Case with glass doors for appara- 
tus. 

c, Closet for Teacher. 

q, Grate. 

r, Hot air register. 

v, Flues for ventilation. 



Plan op Third Floor. 




208 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan and Description of GIuincy Grammar School-House, 
Boston. 

This building, which was commenced in 1847, and dedicated on the 26th of 
June, 1848, is situated on a lot 90 feet by 130 feet, extending from Tyler street 
to Hudson street. 

The ground plan is in the form of a cross, the exterior dimensions of the body 
being 80 feet by 58 feet, the end fronting on Tyler street. The wings are 12 
feet in front by 36 feet deep. It is four stories high, with a basement 8 feet in 
the clear, for the furnaces and fuel, and an attic for gymnastic exercises. 

Each wing contains a front and back entrance, a flight of stairs from the 
basement to the attic, and a room on each floor 10 feet by 11 feet, connected 
with a school-room. 

The fourth story of the body is finished in one spacious hall, 16 feet high in 
the clear, with centre-pieces and a cornice, and a platform at each end 22 feet 
by 11 feet, and 22 inches high. It is furnished with settees arranged in 4 rows, 
sufficient to accommodate 700 children. 

The third floor is divided by a corridor 8 feet wide, extending across the main 
body from one wing to the other, having 2 school-rooms on each side. 

These four school-rooms are of nearly the same size, averaging about 
31 1 feet by 26 J feet, and 13 feet high. Each room is lighted by 2 windows at 
the side, and 2 at the end, and has a platform for the teacher 24 feet by about 5£, 
with one end towards the entrance from the corridor, and on the other end is 
placed a book-case of cherry, 3J feet by 8 feet, with glazed doors, facing the 
entrance. 

The scholars' desks front the platform and the windows on the side of the 
building, and are separated by aisles 1 foot and 4 inches wide. They are 2 feet 
in length, made of cherry-wood, and varnished and supported by cast iron 
stands. J. L. Ross, maker. Each scholar has a desk by himself. 

The chair is made by Mr. Wales, of Boston. It has a scroll back and cast 
iron support. 

Each room accommodates 56 pupils, one desk and chair being placed on a 
small movable platform for a monitor. 

The rooms are lined with composition blackboards 3£ feet wide, 2 feet from 
the floor. 

The school-rooms which have not small rooms attached, are provided with 
closets for the children's clothes. There are 2 sinks in the corridor, with con- 
veniences for introducing Cochituate water. The description of this story will 
answer for the two below it, as the first three are essentially the same. 

The windows are furnished with inside blinds, having revolving slats, so that 
the light may be regulated with great ease. 

The building is warmed by 4 furnaces placed in the basement, 2 being placed 
at the middle of each end, each being intended to warm the three rooms imme- 
diately over it, the cast iron chimnies being relied upon for heating the hall. 

Emerson's system of ventilation has been introduced since the building was 
finished, each room having a separate air-duct to the roof, 14 inches by 14 inches. 

The apparatus consists of the Boston Philosophical set, by J. M. Wightman, 
Eayrs and Fairbanks' globe, 2 sets of Pelton's Outline Maps, and one of 
Mitchell's. 

A library costing $200 has been furnished by the donation of Mayor GIuincy. 

To protect the desks from injury, the slate-frames are all required to be cov- 
ered with cloth, and each scholar is to provide himself with a convenient box to 
contain his pen, pen-wiper, pencils, rubber, &c. Each desk has an inkstand 
sunk into the right-hand corner, with a revolving metalic cover. 

The building is calculated for but one school, and is at present occupied by 
but one, the organization of which is adapted to the arrangement and construc- 
tion of the house. When the organization is complete, the school will be 
divided into 4 classes, each class containing 168 scholars, and each class into 3 
divisions. At present the 3 lower classes contain two divisions each, and the 
first class 3. 

On the 3rd floor are the first division of the first class ander the instruction o/ 



CtfJINCY SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



209 



the Principal, and the several divisions of the 2d class instructed by assistants; 
On the 2d floor is the 2d division of the 1st class instructed by the sub-mas- 
ter, with the several divisions of the 3d class under assistants; and the usher 
takes the 3rd division of the 1st class, with the several divisions of the 4th class 
on the 1st floor. By this arrangement the government is rendered compara- 
tively easy. The whole school is brought together in the hall for devotional 
services, and other general exercises. 




Plan of First Floor. 

A, A, Front Door. 

B, B, Entries. 

C, Corridor or Hall. 

T, T, T, T, Teachers' Platform 24 feet by bh. 

r, r, r, r, Hot-air flues. 

v, v, v, v, Preston's Ventilators for controlling the flues in the partition wall, 
which communicate with the iron smoke pipes near the top of the building. 
This plan is adopted in the first story only. 

e, e, e, e, Indicates the location of the flues of Emerson's Ventilators in the 
second, third and fourth stories. 

s, Sink. 

c, c. c, c, Closets. 

d, d, Closets 10 feet by 11 feet 



14 



PUTNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 211 



Plans and Description of the Putnam Free School-House, 
Newburyport, Mass. 

We are indebted to W. H. Wells, Esq., the gentleman who has 
been selected as Principal of the Putnam Free School, and to whom 
the work of organizing this important institution has been committed, 
for the following plans and description. 

The Putnam Free School was founded by Mr. Oliver Putnam, a 
native of Newbury. It has a permanent fund of fifty thousand dol- 
lars, besides the amount invested in the school-house and its appur- 
tenances. 

The number of pupils to be admitted at the opening of the school 
(April, 1848,) is limited by the Trustees to 80. No pupil can be 
received under twelve years of age, nor for less time than one year. 

The object of the Institution is to lead pupils through an extended 
course of English studv. It is open to students from any portion of 
the country, who are prepared to meet the requirements for admis- 
sion. No charge is made for tuition. 

This building is situated on High street, directly opposite the Common or 
Mall. It is constructed of brick, with corners, door-sills, underpinning, steps, 
etc., of freestone. It is two stories in height, exclusive of a basement story, 
85 k feet in length, and 52 i in breadth. 

The upper story is divided into two principal school-rooms, each 49i feet by 
40L There is also a small room in this story for the use of the Principal. 
The lower story contains a hall for lectures and other general exercises, and 
four recitation rooms. The hall is 44 feet by 48|. Two of the recitation 
rooms are 14 feet by 17, and two are 11 by 20. 

Each of the principal school-rooms is furnished with 64 single seats and 
desks, besides recitation chairs, settees, etc. The desks are made of cherry; 
and both the desks and the chairs are supported by iron castings, screwed 
firmly to the floor. In form and construction, they are similar to Kimball's 
" Improved School Chairs and Desks." 

The central aisles are two feet and eight inches in width ; the side aisles, 
four feet and four inches; and the remaining aisles, two feet. 

The building is warmed by two furnaces. It is ventilated by six flues from 
the hall on the lower floor, six from each of the school-rooms on the second 
floor, and one from each of the recitation rooms. Each of these flues has two 
registers ; one near the floor, and the other near the ceiling. The two princi- 
pal school-rooms are furnished with double windows. 

The institution is provided with ample play-grounds and garden plots, back 
of the building and at the ends. It has also a bell weighing 340 lbs. 

The first appropriation of the Trustees for the purchase of apparatus, is one 
thousand dollars. Other appropriations will probably be made, as the wants 
of the school may require. In addition to the apparatus procured by the Trus- 
tees, the institution is to have the use of an achromatic telescope, which will 
cost between three and four hundred dollars. 

The cost of the building and ground, with the various appurtenances, exclu- 
sive of apparatus, has amounted to twenty-six thousand dollars. 

The accompanying plans give a correct representation of the arrangements 
on the two principal floors. 

The building was erected after designs and specifications by Mr. Bryant, 
Architect. Boston, 



212 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



PUTNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE.— LOWER STORY 




H — Hall for lectures and other general exercises, 44 feet by 48^. A — Raised 
platform for desk. D — Front door. (The portico in front does not appear in the 
plate.) B, B — Recitation rooms, 11 feet by 20. R, R — Reoitation rooms, 14 feet 
by 17. E, E, E, E — Entries. C, C — Wash closets, under the stairs, a, a — Doors 
leading to the basement story, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d, d — Doors, v, v, v, v, v, 
v, y, t, v, v. — Ventilating flues. 



PI TNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE, NEWBURYPORT. 



213 



PUTNAM FREE SCHOOL-HOUSE.— UPPER STORY. 




Q 



□nan°nanci°n°DnLi □ 

□D oQ nQ □□ □[] nQ nn nD D 



□ 



cQcQcacicacidccb 

°n °n □□□□□□ °n □□□□□ 

^oDdcicidcicccp 
ancoqncicnciciicp 




a 



a 



□ 



□ 



a 



□ 



a 



* 



"u* 



M, D— Room for Male Department. F, D— Room for Female Department. 

A, A Raised platforms for teachers' desks. L — Principal's room. C, C — 

Closets, p, p — Raised platforms under the black-boards, s, s, 3, s, s, s — Settees 
4, d, d, d, d, d— Doors, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v, v— Ventilating flues 



214 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plans and Description of the Public High School-House, . ■ 
Hartford, Conn. 

The Public High School-House of Hartford was built after more 
than ordinary search for the best plan, (a committee having visited 
Boston, Lowell, Salem, Newburyport, Worcester, Providence, and 
Middletown, for this purpose,) under the constant oversight of a 
prudent, practical and intelligent building committee, and with due 
regard to a wise economy. The committee were limited in their 
expenditure for lot, building, and fixtures, to $12,000; and when it 
was ascertained that a suitable building could not be constructed 
for that sum, individuals on the committee immediately contributed 
$2,400 out of their own pockets to complete the house with the 
latest improvements. The committee have now the satisfaction of 
knowing that their contributions and personal oversight have been 
mainly instrumental in erecting and furnishing the most complete 
structure of the kind in New England, when the aggregate cost is 
taken into consideration. 

The High School is designed for both males and females, and the arrange- 
ments of the buildings, and the grounds, are made with reference to the separa- 
tion of the sexes, so far as this is desirable in the same school. 

The lot on which the building stands is at the corner of Asylum and Ann 
streets, and is at once central, and large enough for the appropriate yards. The 
yards are separated by a close and substantial board fence, and the grounds are 
well laid out and properly inclosed ; they will also soon be planted with trees 
and shrubbery. The building is of brick, three stories high, upon a firm stone 
basement. Its dimensions are 50 by 75 feet. The basement is 13 feet in the 
clear, six feet of which are above the level of the yard. This part of the build- 
ing is occupied by furnaces, coal bins, sinks, pumps, entrance rooms, &c. At one 
end, and on two opposite sides of the building, a stair case eleven feet in width 
extends from each of the two entrance rooms, to the upper story, with spacious 
landings on the first and second floors. Two rooms, each 11 by 14 feet, are be- 
tween the stair cases, the one on the first floor being used for a front entry to the 
building, and the one on the second floor being appropriated to the Library 
and Apparatus. Two closets, eleven by four feet on the first floor, and imme- 
diately beneath the stair cases, receive the outer garments, umbrellas, &c, of 
the teachers. 

An aisle of four feet four inches in width extends between the desks and 
outer walls of the rooms, and between every two ranges of desks is an aisle of 
two feet four inches in width. An aisle of eight feet in width passes through 
the middle of the rooms, parallel to the narrower passages. A space of five 
feet in width is likewise reserved between the remote seats in the ranges and 
the partition wall of the rooms. Around the sides of the rooms, tastefully con- 
structed settees are placed for occasional recitations, and for the accommodation 
of visiters, and in the upper room for the use of the pupils of the room below, 
during the opening and closing exercises of the school. 

The pupils, when seated, face the teachers' desks and platforms,which occupy 
the space between the entrance doors of each room. 

A blackboard, or black plaster surface, forty feet long, and five broad, ex- 
tends between the doors leading to the recitation rooms, which are also lined 
with a continuous blackboard. There is also a blackboard extending the 
entire length of the teachers' platform in the lower room, and two of smaller di- 
mensions in the room above, a part of the space being occupied by the folding 
doors leading to the library and apparatus room. Twenty chairs, of small di- 
mensions and sixteen inches in height, are placed around each recitation room, 
♦hirteen inches apart and seven inches from the walls, and securely fastened to 
the floor. A clock, with a circular gilt frame and eighteen-inch dial plate, is 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL HARTFORD. 215 

placed over the teachers' platform in each school room, in full view of the pupils. 
A small bell is also placed above the teachers' platform in the lower room, with 
a wire attached, passing to the desk of the Principal, in the room above, by 
which the time of recesses, change of recitation classes, &c, are signified to 
the members of the lower rooms. 

The school-rooms in the first and second stories are 50 feet square, and 13 feet 
in height — to each of which, two recitation rooms 12 by 23 feet are attached. 
The large rooms are furnished with " Kimball's improved School Chairs and 
Desks," placed in six ranges, extending back from the teachers' platforms, ten 
esks forming a range, and two chairs attached to each desk, furnishing accom- 
odations in each room for 120 pupils — 60 of either sex. Ample room yet 
emains in front of these ranges to increase the number of desks when the 
wants of the school demand them. The desks are four feet in length and one 
foot four inches in breadth, constructed of cherry, oiled and varnished. The 
moderately inclined tops am fixed to the end supporters, and the openings for 
books are in front of the pupils. Glass inkstands are inserted in the tops of the 
desks, and the ink protected from dust and the action of the atmosphere by 
mahogany covers turning on pivots. The chairs are constructed with seats 
of basswood, hollowed, and backs of cherry, moulded both to add beauty to 
the form of the chair, and to afford support and comfort to the occupants. Ah 
are neatly stained and varnished, and they, as well as the desks, rest on iron 
supporters, firmly screwed to the floor. 

The entire upper story is converted into a hall, being twelve feet in height at 
the walls, rising thence in an arch to the height of seventeen feet. This is ap- 
propriated to reading, and declamation, and for the female department of the 
school, to daily recess, and calisthenic exercises. A moderately raised platform 
is located at one end, above which an extended blackboard is placed, and settees 
are ranged around the walls ; these, properly arranged, together with the settees 
from the lower rooms, which are easily transported above, speedily convert the 
open Hall into a commodious Lecture room, — and also adapt it to the purposes 
of public examinations and exhibitions. 

In each of the two entrance rooms are placed the means of cleanliness and 
comfort, — a pump of the most approved construction, an ample sink, two wash 
basins with towels, glass drinking tumblers, and a looking-glass. Kanges ol 
hooks for hats, coats, bonnets, cloaks, &c, extend around the rooms, and are 
numbered to correspond with the number of pupils, of each sex, which the 
capacity of the house will accommodate. In the girls' room, pairs of small 
iron hooks are placed directly beneath the bonnet hooks, and twelve inches from 
the floor, for holding the over-shoes. In the boys' room, boot-jacks are pro- 
vided to facilitate the exchange of boots for slippers when they enter the build- 
ing — an important article, and of which no one in this department of the school 
is destitute. A thin plank, moderately inclined by hollowing the upper side, is 
placed upon the floor, and extends around the walls of the room, to receive the 
boots and convey the melted ice and snow from them, by a pipe, beneath the 
floor. A large umbrella stand is furnished in each of the two entrance rooms, 
also with pipes for conveying away the water. Stools are secured to the floors 
for convenience in exchanging boots, shoes, &c. Directly under the stairs is an 
omnium gatherum — an appropriate vessel, in which are carefully deposited 
shreds of paper, and whatever comes under the denomination of Utter,- subject, 
of course, to frequent removal. These rooms, in common with the others, are 
carefully warmed. The wainscoting of the entrance' rooms, and the stair ease, 
is formed of narrow boards, grooved and tongued, placed perpendicularly, and 
crowned with a simple moulding. The railing of the stair case is of black 
walnut. A paneled wainscoting reaching from the floor to the base of the 
windows, extends around the walls of the remaining rooms. All the wood 
work, including the library and apparatus cases, is neatly pain ted, oak-grained, 
and varnished. The teachers' tables are made of cherry, eight feet in length, 
and two feet four inches in breadth, with three drawers in each, and are sup- 
ported on eight legs. A movable writing desk of the same material is placed 
on each. Immediately in front of the teachers' desk in the upper room, a piano 
is to be placed, for use during the opening and closing exercises of the school, 
and for the use of the young ladies during the recesses. Venetian window 
blinds with rolling slats, are placed inside the windows, and being of a slight 
buff color, they modify the light without imparting a sombre hue to the room. 



215 . SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The building is warmed throughout by two of Hanks' Improved Air Heater, 
placed in the basement. 

The ventilation of the school-rooms, or the rapid discharge of the air which 
has become impure by respiration, is most thoroughly secured in connection 
with a constant influx of pure warm air from the furnaces, by discharging ven- 
tiducts or flues, situated on each side of the building at the part of the rooms 
most distant from the registers of the furnaces. The ventiducts of each room 
are eighteen inches in diameter, and are carried from the floor entirely separate 
to the Stationary Top, or Ejector above the roof. The openings into the ven- 
tiducts, both at the top and bottom of the room, are two feet square, and are 
governed by a sliding door or blind. 

A flight of stone steps leads to the front and main entrance of the building. 
The architectural entrance is of simple design, fourteen feet in width, and 
twenty feet in height. All the parts are wrought from dark colored stone, and 
on the crowning stone of the entablature, Public High School, appears in 
plain and prominent relief. Large folding doors, with side and top lights, close 
the entrance. 

A side knob commands a bell suspended in the Library Room, directly behind 
the Principal. 

A broad stone walk reaches from the steps to the street ; flagging walks also 
extend from the street to the side entrances of the building, and thence to the 
outbuildings. 

The Library contains an Encyclopedia, the most approved Dictionaries, both 
Classical and English, and other important books of reference for the use of the 
School, together with selected works for the direct professional reading of the 
teachers. 

Several educational and scientific periodicals are furnished to the School, 
and which at the end of each year will form additional volumes for the Library. 

Pelton's and Olney's, together with Mitchell's new series of outline maps, 
published by J. H. Mather & Co., of Hartford, Ct., and a fourteen-inch terres- 
trial globe, aid in the department of General Geography. 

Mattison's series of sixteen astronomical maps; a fourteen-inch celestial 
globe ; Vale's improved twenty-four-inch celestial globe and transparent sphere ; 
a magic lantern, with sets of slides, containing thirty accurate telescopic and 
astronomical views; a reflecting telescope of five feet focal distance, with 
magnifying power of 700, and Chamberlin's best Tellurium, aid in the depart- 
ment of Astronomy. 

Historical maps, charts, &c, an Isothermal chart, and set of large drawings 
to illustrate the anatomical structure, and the physiological functions of the 
system, will be procured. 

The following apparatus has already been procured to aid in illustrating and 
demonstrating in the studies named : 

Mechanics. — Set of mechanical powers, arranged in a mahogany frame, 
comprising three levers, each sixteen inches long. Five sets of brass pulleys 
strung with cord and properly balanced. Brass weights from one to sixteen 
ounces. Serew and lever with nut. Screw as an inclined plane. Ship cap- 
stan. Wheel and axle. "Wedge in two parts. Inclined plane, with carriage. 
Movable fulcrum and lever, for combining the power of screw and lever. 
Machine for illustrating the centrifugal and centripetal forces — thirteen experi- 
imentis. 

Pneumatics. — Air Pump — frame made of rose-wood beautifully polished — 
barrel twelve by four inches inside ; large plate, stop-cock, and barometer in 
vacuo, and worked with a polished steel lever four feet in length, $85,00. 
Large swelled, n ™en-top bell glass. Several plain bell glasses of smaller 
dimensions. Bell glass with brass cap to receive stop-cock. Connector, sliding 
rod, &c. Revolving jet in vacuo. Bursting squares and wire guard for same. 
Condensing chamber and condensing gauge. Artificial fountain, with exterior 
and interior jets. Sheet rubber bag in vacuo, illustrating the rarefaction of 
confined air by removing the pressure of the external. Mercury tunnel to ex- 
hibit the mercurial shower, porosity of wood, pressure of the air, and also the 
luminous shower. Guinea and feather tube. Philosophical water hammer. 



PUPLIC HIGH SCHOOL, HARTFC RD. 217 

Apparatus illustrating the absurdity of suction, or the necessity of atmospheric 
pressure to the operation of the lifting pump. Torricellian barometer improved. 
Bell in vacuo. Apparatus illustrating the buoyancy of air, gas, &c. Weighing 
air and' specific gravity apparatus. Freezing apparatus with thermometer. 
Condensing syringe. Cylindrical open-top bell glasses, three sizes. Hand and 
bladder glass, to illustrate atmospheric pressure. Bladder cap, with cap and 
stop-cock. Double acting exhauster and condenser. Brass hemispherical caps 
with handles, stop-cock and stand. Apparatus to illustrate the upward pressure 
of the atmosphere. Connecting screws, guard screws, sliding rod, with pack- 
ing screws and binding screws. Flexible hose and screw connectors. Hydro- 
gen bottle. Lead hose for conducting gases. Floating bulbs for condensation. 
Sheet rubber and sheet rubber bags. Glass bells and stems for freezing appa- 
ratus. Pair magnetic swans. Detonating glass tubes. Wire gauze, to illus- 
trate Davy's safety lamp. 

Hydrostatics. — Hydrostatic bellows, with glass and brass tubes, glass tun- 
nels, weights, &c. Pair of working models of the forcing and lifting pump. 
Graduated glass jars for cubic inches. 

Electricity. — Electrical machine, 24 inch plate, $50,00. Leyden jar of four 
quarts. Do. do. for suspension with movable rings and points. Do. do. with 
sliding discharger. Electrometer jar, by which the charge may be measured, 
&c. Electric batteries with six four-quart jars. Sliding, directing rod. Spiral 
spotted tube. Jointed discharger, glass handle. Universal discharger. Insu- 
lating stand. Electric bells. Wax cylinder. Thunder house with fixtures. 
Gas pistol. Gas generator and platina igniter, four quarts. Longhaired man. 
Electric float wheel and point. Abbe Noloes' globe. Luminous bell glass. 
Electric S. Aurora flask. Electric seasons machine. Elastic rubber ball. 
Ether spoon. Chamberlin's cylindrical gasometers, for oxygen and hydrogen, 
united, forming a compound blow pipe, $60,00. Iron retort for oxygen gas. 
Metallic reflectors with stand, iron ball and stands and a thermometer. Glass 
spirit lamp. Spirit boiler to use with reflectors. Dropping tube. Glass tun- 
nels. G raduated glass hydrometer. Flask with screw-cap admitting thermom- 
eter. Platina and copper pendant spoons. Brass pipe for blowing gas bubbles. 
Hydrogen gas generator, with platina sponge for lighting a long detonating jet. 
Lamp stand. Flexible hose for transferring and conducting gases. Scales and 
weights for chemical purposes. Pyrometer with two lamps and rods. Section 
model of the high pressure engine. 

Galvanic Magnetic and Electro Magnetic. — Davis's cylindric battery. 
Steel U magnet and armature. Magnetic needles and stands. Electromag- 
net. Electro coil and hemispheric magnets. Terrestrial helix. Primary coil 
and handles for shocks. Separable helics for analysis of shocks. 

Optics. — Models of the human eye in three parts. Fig. 1st. A dissectible 
eye four inches in diameter, showing the cornea, iris, ciliary process, choroid 
tunic, crystalline lens, vitreous hi,mor, retina, black pigment, optic nerve, &c. 
Fig. 2d. Showing the eye in its socket, with the muscles. Fig. 3d. The eye 
with rays of light passing from an object and forming the image on the retina. 
The object and the image movable, showing the cause of lens light, short sight, 
and perfect sight. 

An oxy-hydrogen microscope will soon be added in this department. 

With the above apparatus more than eight hundred experiments can be per- 
formed. 

For the purpose of teaching practical surveying, and the elements of en- 
gineering, a Theodolite, of approved English manufacture, is provided. Cost 



Other apparatus will from time to time be added, as the wants of the School 
may require. 

Building Committee. — A. M. Collins, D. F. Robinson, T. Belknap, J, ML 
Buncb, W. Pease, Jr., Edward Button, E. D. Tiffany, 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL, HARTFORD. 
Fig. 2— Ground Plan, Yard, Basement, &c. 



219 




A — Front yard. 

B — Girls' yard. 

C — Boys' yard. 

D — Door. 

E — Boys' entrance rooms. 

G — Girls' entrance rooms. 

F — Furnace. 

S — Stairs. 

W — Windows. 

P — Privies, with screen, doors, &c. 

X— Gates. 



a — Cold air ducts. 

b— Warm air ducts. 

c — Foul air ducts or ventilating flues. 

d — Smoke pipe. 

e — Pump, sink. 

f— Umbrella stand. 

g — Hollowed plank to receive wet 

boots, overshoes, &c. 
o — Bins for hard coal, charcoal, &C 
j— Close board fence. 



220 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



-Plan op First Floor. 




sosnsnsnsnsnsDsasQsDsD 

'mosososflsosososa 




c 

Ik 



M 



V///,my//////2 



vJm 



sasastHHisasasasasDsn 




A — Front entrance. 
B — Girls' entrance. 
C — Boys' entrance. 
I— Centre aisle, eight feet. 

L — Aisle between each range of seats and desks, two feet four inches. 
K — Side aisle, four feet four inches. 
M — Space five feet wide. 
T — Teachers' platform and desk. 

R — Recitation rooms, each twenty-three feet by twelve, furnished with* 
twenty chairs, seven inches from the wall and thirteen inches apart. 
Q, — Library and apparatus, from eleven feet by fourteen feet. 
N — Kimball's desk and two chairs. 
O — Piano. 

r — Hot air registers. 
c — Ventilating flue or foul air duct. N — Settees. 



I 

sammomron 
3DOT[ffi[»ow[i 

^____^ c 

mfiE=rt=An./; wwtwm — n — wi. 
Fig. 4— Plan op Second Floob. 





PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL, HARTFORD. 221 

Figs. 5 and 6. Plans exhibiting Mode of Ventilation. 




Fig. 5. Transverse section exhibiting the manner in which the ventiducts or 
tot air flues are carried up on the inside of the walls, under the roof, till they 
discharge into the Stationary Top or Ejector. 

Fig. 6. Lateral section of the ventiducts or fou] air flues, showing the man- 
ner in which the flues are packed together and carried up separately from the 
floor of each room until they discharge into the common Ejector. The cut does 
not represent properly the manner in which the flues are carried under and oui 
of the roof. 

Fig. 7. Hanks' Improved Air Heater. 




222 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



The following description and notice of Hanks' Furnace or Im- 
proved Air Heater, which has worked well in the High School, is 
taken from the Circular of the Patentee. 

" The Air Heater is set in the cellar or basement surrounded by a double brick 
wall — each four inches thick and four inches apart, arched oyer the top, leav- 
ing a door in the rear, of sufficient size to take out the Healer — the door to be 
closed with two thicknesses of tin or sheet iron, three inches apart. At the 
bottom of the wall, directly under the pipes, also opposite the stove, introduce 
a supply of pure air from outside of the building — this coming in contact with 
the heated surfaces, rises rapidly and passes off into tin conductors leading 
from the arch over the Heater, to the apartments intended to be warmed. 

The peculiar improvement and operation of this Apparatus is, that the heat, 
^s its temperature is reduced, passes dovm into pipes of a still lower temperature, 
and at the lowest, passes off into the chimney. The air to be warmed, is 
brought first in contact with the pipes and conductors of the lowest temperature, 
and as it becomes warm and rises, is brought in contact with, and rises among 
pipes of a temperature continually and regularly increasing, until at the highest 
it passes off into conductors leading to the rooms. Thus the current oiheat is 
directly contrary to the current of air passing into the apartments. 

It will radiate more heat, with a given quantity of fuel, than any other appa- 
ratus now in use for the same purpose. 

It is perfectly accessible at all times, and may be cleared of ashes and soot 
either when in operation or not, by simply opening the door of the Radiator. 

All the coal it may contain can always be seen by looking in at the " feeding 
ioor;" thus it may at once be known if the quantity and quality of the coal is 
as it should be. 

It is so constructed that the required quantity of heat can always be had and 
controlled, diminished or increased at pleasure, with a corresponding consump- 
tion of fuel." 



Fig. 8. Kimball's Improved Chairs and Desk. 




For description, see p. 116. 



free academy, new york. 223 

Plan and Description of the Free Academy in the City of 
New York. 

The Free Academy is situated on the S. E. corner of Twenty-third street and 
Lexington avenue, in the upper part of the city, being convenient of access 
from all the great thoroughfares. The style of architecture, in which the build- 
ing is erected, is the same as that of the town halls and colleges of the 14th cen- 
tury, in Europe. This style attained its greatest perfection in the Low Coun- 
tries, and especially in Belgium, which at that period was the great seat of 
learning, science and the arts, as well as the great centre of the commercial 
enterprise of Europe. It was the opinion of the architect, therefore, apart from 
the economy in construction, of the Gothic style, when properly managed, that 
this style would be peculiarly appropriate for the High School of the city of 
New York, and was also well adapted to the materials of which it was pro- 
posed to construct the building, many of the old halls and colleges being built 
of brick. The architect, Mr. Renwick, of New York, in a letter to the Presi- 
dent of the Board of Education, remarks, 

" I am confident that the style I have adopted is, at the same time the strong- 
est, the cheapest, and the one best adapted to the purposes of heat and ven- 
tilation, being the only one, except the Norman, in which chimneys and flues 
become ornamental, and a roof of high pitch, necessary for external beauty, 
and capable of being intersected by dormer windows, which latter will add to 
the beauty of the building and to the convenience of lighting and ventilating 
the great hall, in the roof. 

."As you (the Board) have proposed, with perfect correctness, to make the 
great hall in the Gothic style, for it can be in no other order, placed in such a 
position immediately beneath the roof, and is capable of being made highly or- 
namental in such a place, I was of opinion that the exterior of the whole build- 
ing should accord with it, as, if it were planned in any other style, it would ap- 
pear inharmonious, and therefore produce an unpleasant effect on the mind by 
its incongruity. The height of the building, too, the great pitch of the roof, and 
the numerous chimneys and ventilating flues necessary to render the arrange- 
ment perfect, would entirely preclude the adoption of the Grecian, Roman, or 
modern Italian styles, with any good effect, apart from their being much more 
expensive, and less beautiful. 

" 1 have entered at length into the reasons which guided me in the adoption 
of a style for the building, because it might at first sight appear expensive, and 
therefore improper for such an institution. You will at once perceive the great 
strength which the buttresses impart to the building, and the consequent reduc- 
tion in the thickness of the walls. These buttresses will also serve for ventila- 
ting flues, which in such a building should be of large size, in order to prevent, 
as far as possible, any friction from interfering with the passage of the currents 
of air, an end which can only be attained by large and smooth flues." 

The dimensions of the building are as follows : The length of the building, 
exclusive of all projections, is 125 feet, and the breadth 80 feet. The height, to 
the eaves, 65 feet, and to the top of the gable, 100 feet. The height of the tow- 
ers, 110 feet 

The building is divided into a basement, three stories, and a great hall under 
the roof. The basement is nine feet in height, and is arched to afford ground 
for exercise in bad weather. In it, also, are the janitors' lodgings, the chemical 
laboratory, and the closets for the hats and clothes of the students. The first, 
second and third stories are divided into four great rooms by two wide, spacious 
halls, which are carried through the centre of the building longitudinally and 
transversely. Two of these rooms, on each floor, are again divided, affording 
smaller rooms for recitation, &c. Above these stories is the great hall, 125 
feet long by GO feet in Meadth, divided by the king and queen posts of the roof, 
which are made ornamental, into three aisles, the centre one of which is 40 feet 
in height, and the two side aisles each 20 feet in height. The ceiling of this 
room is of wood immediately under the roof, of which it forms part, and it is 
ornamented with carved ribs of wood, in the manner of the old college halls at 
Oxford and Cambridge. It is lighted by windows at the ends and by dormers 
in the roof, and when finished, will probably be the largest and finest collegiate 
haL in this country. 

The expense of the building, complete, without the furniture, will be 46,000 
dollars. 



224 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The Free Academy of the city of New York was established by 
the Board of Education, in 1847, in pursuance of authority granted 
by the Legislature on the memorial of the Board, and on condition 
that the question of its establishment should be submitted to the 
people of the city, and a majority of the votes given should be in 
favor of the proposition. The question was so submitted on the first 
Monday of June, 1847, and 19,904 votes were given in favor of the 
same to 3,409 against. The act of the Legislature authorized the 
Board to erect a building at an expense of $50,000, and to raise by 
tax annually for its support, the sum of $20,000, exclusive of a pro- 
portion of the State Literature Fund, and any other means from other 
sources than those of taxation. Admission into the Academy is con- 
fined to those who have been pupils in the public schools of the city. 
The character and design of this institution may be gathered from 
the following extracts from the Memorial of the Board : — 

" It cannot be denied that the unavoidable expense of a regular course of ed- 
ucation at this time, is greater than can be borne by the heads of families in 
this city pursuing the various trades and occupations, whose business occupies 
the great mass of the people. 

"If the number of highly educated men can, with a trivial addition to the 
public expense, be greatly multiplied ; if these benefits can be rendered acces- 
sible to the great mass of young men who cannot now indulge the hope of en- 
joying them at all, if pecuniary inability to defray the present expenses of a 
collegiate education can cease to be a barrier to the acquisition of it, it is but 
reasonable to expect that in a brief period the number liberally educated in this 
city will be increased at least four-fold. 

" One of the important objects designed to be secured by establishing a Free 
Academy, is to bring the advantages of the best education that any school in 
our country can give, within the reach of all the children of the city whose ge- 
nius, capacity, and desire of attainment are such as to render it reasonably cer- 
tain thai they may be made, and by such means would become, eminently use- 
ful to society. 

" The permanency of our free institutions, the future state of society, the ex- 
tent to which the laws of the country will be regarded, and social quiet and or- 
der preserved, depend essentially upon the virtue and intelligence of the people. 

" It is believed that a liberal education of the largest practicable number of 
the young men who may propose to seek the means of subsistence in agricul- 
ture, mechanical, or other productive occupations, would exercise a genial in- 
fluence upon all the varied relations of social and political life : and that such 
an education would not tend to dissatisfy them with such pursuits. 

" One object of the proposed Free Institution is, to create an additional inter- 
est in, and more completely popularize the Common Schools, it is believed 
that they will be regarded with additional favor, and attended with increased 
satisfaction, when the pupils and their parents feel that the children who have 
received their primary eddcation in these schools, can be admitted to all the 
benefits and advantages furnished by the best endowed college in the state, 
without any expense whatever. It is believed that such an institution as the 
proposed Free Academy is designed to be, in addition to the great benefits it 
will confer by annually graduating a large number of highly educated young 
men, destined to pursue some of all the various pursuits of life, would stimu- 
late tens of thousands, who might never enter this academy, to additional indus- 
try and greater advances while in the common schools. The certainty to a 
young man of good abilities, and desirous of making large acquisitions in 
knowledge, of having the opportunity of gaining as extensive an education as 
can be acquired in any institution in the State, if his parents can only furnish 
him the means to subsist at home, is in the highest degree cheering, while the 
certainty that the limited earnings of his parents will preclude him, in the ex- 
isting state of things, from having anv such advantages, tends to repress all 
such generous aspirations, paralyze effort, and prevent the full development of 
his ability to become extensively useful to the class in which his lot may be 
cast, or to society at large." 



226 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE, 





A. Iron or brick ash-pit. 

B. Ash-pit door. 

C. Pot, or coal Burner, 

with or without soap- 
stone lining. 

D. Fire chamber. 

E. Lower half of tubular 

drum. 

F. Elliptical tubes. 

G. Upper half of tubular 

drum. 

H. Top of tubular drum. 

I. Cap and smoke-pipe. 

K. Flat radiator. 

L. "Water basin or evapo- 
rator. 

M. Smoke pipe to chimney. 

N. Conductors of hot air. 

N. Cold air conductor and 
chamber. 

P. Feed door. 

GL. Hot air chamber. 

R. Damper in globe with 
rod attached. 

S. Pendulum valve for 
cleaning. 

-t— Shows the direc- 
tion of the currents of 
hot or cold air. 



Fig. 3.— Culver's Furnace. 



FREE ACADEMY, NEW YORK. 



227 



The mode of warming and ventilating the several apartments of the Free 
Academy can be easily understood by consulting Figures 2, 3 and 4. Four of 
Culver's furnaces are set in the basement, as shown in Fig. 3. A large quantity 
of fresh air from out of doors, after being warmed by these furnaces, is carried 
up to the several stories by pipes in the division walls, (Fig. 2,) and is admitted 
into the rooms at a convenient point, as indicated in Figures 5 and 6. The air 
of each room, as it becomes vitiated by respiration, is discharged by openings 
near the ceiling into the buttresses, which are constructed hollow and finished 
smooth, so as to constitute large ventilating flues. Each opening is fitted with 
one of Culver's Ventilators or Registers, with cords attached, by which the ca- 
pacity of the opening for the discharge of vitiated air can be enlarged and di- 
minished at the pleasure of the teacher. The practical working of the furnaces 
and flues for ventilation, secures the object aimed at — a genial and pure atmos- 
phere at all times. 




Fig. 3. — Basement Floor. 



The above cut gives an incorrect view of the exterior of the building, but a 
good idea of the internal arrangement of the basement story. 



228 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




Fig 5.— Plan op First Story. 



The author of this treatise has not been furnished with descriptions of this 
and the following- plan, but a general idea of the arrangement of the room 
can be obtained from the cuts themselves, and from the description on page 
232. The building contains more accommodations than any similar struc- 
ture in any of our large cities, according to the cost. 



FREE ACADEMY. 



229 




Fig. 6.— Plan op Second Story. 




230 



school architecture. 

Apparatus foe. Warming. 



The thorough ventilation, the constant and regular change of the at- 
mosphere of a school-room cannot be secured by simply providing flues or 
openings, however judiciously constructed and placed, for the escape of 
the air which has become impure from the process of breathing or other 
causes. These flues will not work satisfactorily, unless a mode of warm- 
ing the room is adopted by which a large supply of pure fresh air, properly 
heated, is flowing in to supply the place of that which is escaping by mean& 
of the flues. Among the various modes of warming school-rooms and public 
halls, which we have seen in full and successful operation, we select a few, 
in addition to those described in other parts of the work, as worthy of the par- 
ticular attention of committees and others, who are looking round for a 
heating apparatus. We shall use the cuts and description by which the 
patentees and venders have?chosen to make their several modes of warm- 
ing known to the public, without intending to decide on the relative 
merits of any one mode. 

Culver's Hot- Air Furnace. 

Patented and Manufactured by Culver & Co., 52 Cliff-street, New York. 

Culver's Hot-Air Furnace, as described in the following diagram and 
explanations, is intended for hard coal, to be set in double walls of brick 
masonry in cellar or basement, below the rooms to be warmed. 

Figure 1. 




A. Iron or Briek Ash Pit. 

B. Ash Pit door. 

C. Pot, or coal Burner, 

■with or without soap- 
stone lining. 

D. Fire Chamber. 

E. Lower half of Tabular 

drum. 

F. Elliptical tubes. 

G. Upper half of Tubular 

drum. 

EL Top of Tubular drum. 

L Cap and smoke pipe. 

K. Flat Radiator. 

L, Water bason or evapo- 
rator. 

M. Smoke pipe to chimney. 

N. Conductors of Hot Air. 

O. Cold air conductor and 
chamber. 

P. Feed door. 

d. Hot- Air chamber. 

R. Damper in globe with 
rod attached. 

S. Pendulum valve for 
cleaning. 

— f- Shows the direc- 
tion of the currents of 
hot or cold air. 



CULVER'S FURNACE. 



231 



Culver & Co. also make, and put up, various sizes of Portable Furnaces, with 
metallic coverings, suitable for counting rooms, stores, school- rooms and small 
houses, warming the rooms in which they stand, as well as others in the same 
building, and they can be removed in summer as conveniently as stoves. 



Figure 2. 



Figure 3. 




r 1 It 




Figure 2 represents a section of large size Portable Furnace or double cas- 
ings of sheet iron or zinc. The same letters for reference are used as in Fig. 1. 

Figure 3 represents a smaller size Portable Furnace, with two metal cover- 
ings and an evaporating dish standing upon the top of the drum. 

The peculiarities and advantages of the Furnace are thus set forth: 

1. Its compact, convenient and beautiful form. 

2. Its great durability ; being in all its parts of cast iron, set within walls of 
brick masonry. The pot or burner being whole, is found by experience to be 
more durable than those made of rings or segments, and entirely prevents the 
admission of gas into the hot-air chamber. 

3. The great radiating surfaces of this Furnace exceed those of any other, 
and being nearly all perpendicular, and so arranged as to afford no chance for 
the soot, light coal ashes or dust to collect on the plates and prevent the trans- 
mission of heat through them, for it must be obvious to every thinking mind, 
that if a radiating surface is of a zig-zag, or any other form that prevehtn the 
descent of dust or soot in a perpendicular line, it will certainly collect dust upon 
it, and just so much surface thus covered 's destroyed for radiating purposes, 
and in the same proportion will a greatex consumption of fuel be required to 
produce a given result. 

These furnaces are so constructed that heat acts actively upon those surfaces 
within, and produces the immediate and powerful heating of the cold air that 
is admitted to the outer surface from the atmosphere, through the tubes for that 
purpose. 

4. The great economy in the use of fuel, making and controlling more heat 
than by any other process of using it. 

5. The joints of this Furnace are so constructed that the expansion and con- 
traction of the metal cannot open them to admit gas into the hot-air chamber, 
and it can be cleaned of soot and ashes easily, without the necessity of taking 
down or breaking a joint; its action is simple, as easily understood and 
managed as a cylinder stove, and as readily repaired and kept in order, and the 
manner of "removing the deposits" is entirely novel and most efficient. 

6. The constant current of the pure atmosphere into the air chamber, with 



232 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



the evaporation for tempering it to any degree of humidity, gives a fine health- 
ful ventilation, and a soft summer temperature, suited to the most delicate con- 
stitution, and without injury to the building or furniture. . 

The above described Air Heaters are manufactured and sold, wholesale and 
retail, by Culver & Co., who, when required, set them in double walls of brick 
masonry, with cast iron smoke pipe to chimneys, and conductors of hot air. of 
double cross tin, terminating with registers in the rooms, and secured safely 
from fire by tin or soap-stone linings. 




Figure 4 represents patterns of scroll work Registers manufactured by Culver 
&: Co., and put in with their furnaces if desired. The registers have valves 
under the surface, which are easily controlled by means of the star centers. 
They can be used for ventilating purposes as well as for admitting warm air. 

The following directions are given in Culver & Co.'s Circular for the 
use of their Furnace. 

Directions for Use. — In kindling the fire, the valve should be opened by 
drawing out the Damper Rod R, so as to let the smoke pass directly through 
smoke pipe M to chimney. 

Shavings, pine wood, or charcoal, should be thrown into the pot or coal burner 
C, and when well ignited, put in about half a hod of coal, and as soon as it also 
becomes ignited, fill the pot two thirds full of coal, and push the damper R parti}'' 
in, so as to regulate the draught and heat as may be necessary. The. valve may 
be entirely closed, if need be, so as to retain the heat, making it to pass through 
the Flat Radiator K. 

In moderate weather, when little heat is wanted, put two shovels full of ashes 
on the centre of the fire, and by regulating the draught, you can make one fire 
last 24 hours without any alteration ; and when you wish to renew the fire, 
poke out a portion of the ashes, and put on fresh coal, without turning the grate. 

In cold weather, however, to secure a brisk fire, the crank should be turned 
so as to empty the pot entirely of ashes, and commence a new fire at least once 
in 24 hours. 

When there is too much heat generated, the ash-pit door, B, should be closed 
entirely, and the damper rod partly drawn out, and if this is not sufficient, the 
Register in feed-door P may be opened ; the heat in the different rooms may be 
regulated by opening or closing the Registers ; all the Registers however should 
never be closed it the same time, unless the water door is opened to let out the 
hot air. 

The cold-air :onductor, 0, should always be open when the Furnace is in 
operation. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL-HOUSES, PROVIDENCE. 233 



Plans and Descriptions of the Public School-Houses in 
Providence, R. I. 

By an ordinance of the City Council of Providence, m the 
spring of 1838, the public schools were reorganized, and provision 
was made for a liberal course of instruction, in schools of different 
grades, for all the children of the city. A committee was appointed 
to examine into the condition of the school-houses then occupied by 
the public schools, and report what alterations, improvements, and 
additional accommodations were required. This committee, after a 
full investigation, reported in favor of building new school-houses, 
on large and eligible . sites, in different parts of the city. After a 
further report from a sub-committee, who had visited Boston, Salem, 
Lowell, and New Bedford, for the purpose of examining the latest 
improvements in the construction of school-houses, and the style and 
arrangements of seats and desks, plans for the different grades of 
schools were determined on, and the committee were authorized to 
purchase such new sites as should be required, and " to erect such 
new school-houses as maybe necessary to carry into full operation" 
the new ordinance. This committee acted with great discretion, 
and, at the same time, with wise regard to the accommodations of 
the public schools ; and the result was, that, at the close of their 
work in 1842, no city in the United States could show so many 
public school-houses, uniformly well built, with most of the latest 
improvements, as Providence. 

Since 1842, great improvements have been introduced into this 
class of buildings, in many of the large cities and villages of Mas- 
sachusetts, as well as in the large districts of Rhode Island ; and it 
is feared, that, in respect to ventilation, size of recitation rooms, and 
suitable accommodation for hats and outer garments, the public 
school-houses of Providence can no longer claim that superiority 
in school architecture which has been heretofore very generally, 
and most justly, accorded to them. 

From the Report of the Building Committee to the City Council, 
giving the details of their proceedings and expenditures, it appears 
that they expended in the purchase of lots and the erection of 
buildings, $100,060.92. Since this committee completed their 
duties, ten new houses have been erected, making the aggregate 
amount invested by the city in school-houses, lots, and furniture 
about $150,000. The following plans and descriptions of these 
houses are taken, with permission, from the Report of Nathan 
Bishop, Esq., Superintendent of Public Schools in Providence 
dated August, 1846. 



234 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



Primary School-Houses. 



These buildings are located in different parts of the city, and are designed 
for the accommodation of children from four to six or seven years of age, or 
until they are prepared to enter the intermediate schools. 




No. 1.— View of a Primary School-House. 



These school-houses stand back from thirty to sixty feet from the line of 
the street, and near the center of lots varying from eighty to one hundred feet 
in breadth, and from one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet in length. 
Each lot is inclosed by a neat and substantial fence, six feet high, and is 
divided into two yards— one for boys and the other for girls— with suitable 
out-buildings, shade trees, and shrubbery. 

These houses are each forty feet long" by thirty-three feet wide, with twelve- 
feet posts, built of wood, in a plain, substantial manner, and, with the fences, 
are painted white, presenting a neat and attractive exterior. 

The entrance is into a lobby [A] and thence into an open area, where stands 
the stove [a]. A portion of the lobby is appropriated to bins for charcoal [c] 
and anthracite [d], which is the fuel used in all the schools; the remainder [Bj 
is occupied by a sink, and as depositories for brooms, brushes, &c. Each 
room is arched, thereby securing an average height of thirteen feet, with an 
opening in the center of the arch, two feet in diameter, for ventilation. The 
ventilator is controlled by a cord passing over a pulley, and descending into 
the room near the teacher's desk [b]. In each end of the attic is a circular 
window, which, turning on an axis, can be opened and closed by cords, in the 
same manner as the ventilator. 



PRIMARY SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 

r. — t~ 



235 




No. 2. — Interior of a Primary School-House. 



The teacher's platform [C] is five feet wide, twenty feet long, and seven 
inches high, with a black-board ten feet long and three feet wide on the wall 
in the rear. 

The floor is of inch and a half plank, tongued and grooved ; and, for the 
purpose of securing warmth and firmness, and avoiding noise, is laid on 
cement. 

The windows, eleven in number, of twenty-four lights, of seven by nine 
glass, are hung with weights, and furnished with inside blinds. The sides of 
the room and entries are ceiled all round with wood as high as the window- 
sills, which are four feet from the floor. The rest of the walls are plastered, 
and covered with white hard finish. Each room is provided with sixty seats 
[5] and desks [f], placed in six ranges; each range containing ten seats and 
desks, of three different sizes, and each seat and desk accommodating two 
scholars, or one hundred and twenty in all. 

The center aisle is three feet and a half wide, and each of the others about 
two feet. 

The desks are over three feet long, by sixteen inches wide, with a shelf 
beneath for books. The upper surface of the desk fa], except about two 
inches at the top [b], slopes one inch and a half in a foot. 



236 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



6 a 




No 3. — View of Top of a Desk, and Sectional View of Primary Seats and Desks. 

The front of the desk, constituting the back of the next seat, slopes one 
inch in a foot. The seat also inclines a very little from the edge. The seats 
are of four different sizes, varying from seven to ten inches wide, and from 
nine to fourteen inches in height, the lowest being nearest the teacher's 
platform. 



Intermediate School-Houses. 



All the buildings of this class are two stories high, affording accommoda- 
tions for two schools, a primary and an intermediate. These houses are 
generally in pleasant situations, on large lots, varying in size from one hundred 
feet wide by one hundred and twenty feet long, to one hundred and fifty by 
two hundred feet. 

Rows of shade trees, consisting of elms, lindens, and maples, are planted 
along the side-walks and the fences inclosing the yards ; and evergreens, the 
mountain ash, and other ornamental trees, are placed within the inclosures. 

These houses are forty-four feet long, by thirty-three feet wide. Some of 
them are built of wood, the remainder of brick, and all in a tasteful and 
substantial style. 

The rooms are large, and easily ventilated, being twelve feet in the clear, 
with large openings in the ceiling of the upper room, and on the sides in the 
lower room, leading into flues in the walls, which conduct the foul air into the 
attic, from which it escapes at circular windows in the gables of the buildings. 
These flues and windows can be opened and closed by cords passing over 
pulleys, and descending into the rooms below, where the teachers can control 
them with ease. 





No. 5.— Sections of Ventilators. 



In this cut, the cord [i], passing over the pulley [j], raising [h], hung on 
hinges at [g-], opens wholly or partially the ventilator [/], a circular aperture 
three feet in diameter. The plan of ventilating the lower rooms is shown on 



238 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



the other part of the diagram, in which [a] represents a cord running over a 
pulley, and attached to [e], a board three feet long by one foot wide, opening 
the space between [b], the top of the lower room, and [d], the floor of the 
upper, leading into the flue [e], ascending to the attic. 

The windows, nine in number in each school-room, of twelve lights, of ten 
by sixteen glass, are hung with weights, so as to be easily opened at top and 
bottom, and furnished with Venetian blinds inside, to regulate the amount of 
light admitted. 

The floors are of hard pine boards, an inch and a half thick, and about six 
inches wide, tongued and grooved, and laid on mortar, as a protection against 
fire, for the prevention of noise, and to secure warmth and firmness. All the 
rooms, entries, and stairways are ceiled up with matched boards about four 
feet, as high as the window-sills. The remaining portions of the walls are 
plastered, and coated with white hard finish. 



6 O o 


i II ll 1 


o o o o o o 


1 II II 1 


o o -p o o 


1 II 1 1 1 


O O O o o 


1 II II 1 


O O O O 


1 II 1 1 1 


o o o o o o 

1 II II 1 


1 II It 1 




1 II II 1 


1 II 1 1 1 




1 II II 1 


1 II II 1 




1 II II 1 


1 II II 1 




1 II II 1 



o o 



o o 



o o 



o o 



o 
o o 



o o 



o o 



o o 



o o P o o 



o o 



: LZZ3 



rr 



o o 



O O o o 



so OS oo 



o o 



1E3 H 






B B 




A. & 



No. 6. — Interior of an Intermediate School-House. 



The walls of some of these buildings are solid stone-work, faced with 
brick ; others are built with double brick walls, as above shown, connected by 
ties of iron or brick. 



INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



239 



As the rooms in the lower stories of this class of buildings are appropriated 
to primary schools, and are furnished in the same manner as those already 
described, the preceding cut is intended to serve the double purpose of exhibit- 
ing on- the first floor only the improvements on the former plan, and, on the 
second, the whole view of a room for an intermediate school. 

The steps [a,a,a] are broad, granite blocks, with scrapers on each end. 
The side doors [A, A], one for boys, the other for girls, lead into entries, eight 
feet by ten, from which the pupils of the primary schools pass through the 
doors [B, B] into the main rooms, which differ from those above described, in 
having a space [o, o], two feet wide, on the back part of the rooms, for reading 
and other class exercises ; and the recitation-room, [D], another valuable 
improvement, as it avoids the confusion arising from having two recitations in 
one room at the same time. 

The flight of stairs in each entry, commencing at the points [R, R], and 
ascending in the direction of [1, 2, 3], lands on the open space [P] in the upper 
entry, from which the pupils pass through the doors [C, C] into the school- 
room. 

Coal-bins and convenient closets, for brooms, brushes, &c, are built under 
the stairs, in the lower entries ; and similar closets, for the same purposes, are 
provided in the upper entries. 

The large area [H, H], thirty feet long by seven wide, is the same in both 
the rooms, and is occupied by the principal teacher in each school, for such 
class exercises as may be more conveniently managed there than in the other 
place [o, o], left for the same purpose. The position of the stove [w] is such as 
not to render it uncomfortably warm on the front seats, and, at the same time, 
not to interfere with the passage of classes through the door [G] into the 
recitation-room [D], which is fourteen feet by ten, and, like all the school- 
rooms, furnished with black-boards. The lower room is lighted by a window 
over the front door, and by the side-lights ; and the upper one by a double or 
rnullion window, of sixteen lights, of ten by sixteen glass. 

The side aisles [m, m] are two feet and a half wide ; the others [P, P,&c] 
are only eighteen inches wide, except the middle one [C], which is three and 
a half feet. The passage across the center of the room is about a foot and a 
half wide, and is very convenient for teachers in passing to the different parts 
of the room, and also for scholars in going to and from their recitations. 

The seats and desks, in the front part of this room, are made and arranged 
on the same plan as those in the primary school-rooms above described, differ- 
ing from them only in being one size larger. The lower end, or foot of each 
perpendicular support, or end-piece, is strongly fastened into a groove in a 
"shoe," or piece of plank, which, being screwed to the floor, secures the desks 
in a durable manner, and in a firm position. 

The others are constructed upon a different plan, designed especially for the 
accommodation of pupils while writing. These desks and seats are "of three 
different sizes, 




No. 7. — Section of a' Writing-Desk and Seat. 



240 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The top of the desk [a] is of pme, one inch and a half thick, fifteen inches 
wide, and three feet and a half long. These desks are twenty-seven inches 
high on the front, and twenty-four on the side next to the seats. A space 
about three inches wide, on the front edge of the top, is planed down to a 
level, and an inkstand is let into the center of this, even with the surface, and 
covered with a small lid. The ends of these desks are an inch and a half 
thick, and fastened by a strong tenon to the shoe [c], which is screwed to the 
floor. The front of the desk, and the shelf [4], for books, &c, are inch boards ; 
the whole desk, made in the strongest manner, is painted a pleasant green, and 
Tarnished. In the next smaller size, the same proportion is observed, but all 
the dimensions are one inch less; and in the third, or smallest size, the dimen- 
sions are all one inch less than in the second. For each desk there are two 
chairs, resting on cast-iron supporters [d], an inch and a quarter in diameter, 
with a wide flange at each end ; the upper one, screwed to the under side of 
the seat [e], is a little smaller than the lower, which is fastened to the floor by 
five strong screws, rendering the chair almost immovable. The largest size 
seats [e] in these rooms are fourteen inches in diameter and fifteen inches 
high, with backs, twenty-eight inches from [g - ] to the top, slanting an inch and 
a quarter to a foot. These backs are made with three slats, fastened by strong 
tenons into a top-piece, like some styles of common chairs, and screwed to the 
seat, while the middle one extends down into a socket on the foot of the iron 
standard. The seats, like the desks, are diminished one inch for the middle 
size, and two for the smallest, preserving the proportions in the different sizes, 
which adapts them to the sizes of the desks. 



Grammar School-Houses. 



There are six buildings of this class, constructed on the same plan, and of 
the same size. They are seventy feet long by forty wide, with a front pro- 
jection, twenty-eight feet long by fourteen feet wide. They are located on 
very large lots, varying from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet long — 
from a hundred and twenty to a hundred and fifty feet wide. All of them, 
except one, are on corner lots, and all have large open spaces around them. 
These, and all the other public school-houses in the city, are protected with 
GLuimby's lightning-rods, and each is furnished with a bell, which can be heard 
in the remotest parts of its district. 

In the accompanying view, No. 9, the engraver has represented a few trees, a 
little larger than any at present around these buildings, because he could not 
crowd all the trees and shrubbery into the picture, without obscuring the lower 
part of the house. 

The cut on p. 91, No. 10, is a ground plan, on a reduced scale, of a Grammar 
School-House, including a general view of the cellar, yards, fences, gates, 
sidewalks, &c. 

The yards around each of the grammar school-houses contain from 18,000 
to 20,000 square feet, or between a third and half an acre. These grounds are 
inclosed, and divided into three separate yards, by substantial close board 
fences ■[/,/,/,/], six feet high, neatly made, and painted white. The boys' 
play-ground [B], and that of the girls [G], are large; but the front yard [E] is 
small, and, not being occupied by pupils, is planted with trees and shrubbery. 
The graveled sidewalks [s, s, s], running on two sides of all the grammar school 
lots, and on three of some of them, are shaded by rows of elms, maples, and 
lindens, set near the curb-stones. The gates [A, C, D] and the graveled walks 
[d, d, d] lead to the front and the two side doors of the school-house ; and [/] 
is a large gate for carting in coal, &c. The out-buildings [i, i] are arranged 
with a large number of separate apartments on both sides, all well ventilated, 
each furnished with a door, and the whole surrounded with evergreens. 

In the plan of the projection [H] the stairway [r] leads to the cellar, which 
is seven feet in the clear, and extends under the whole of the main building. 
These cellars are well lighted, having eight windows [W, W], with ten lights 
df seven by nine glass. The windows, being hung with hinges on the upper 




16 



242 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



























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side, and fastened with hooks and staples at the lower edge, may be opened by 
raising them intc a horizontal position, where they are fastetied with hooks as 
when closed. With this arrangement, it is easy to keep the cellars well ven- 
tilated at all seasons. The openings for the admission of coal into the bins 
[o,o]. one for anthracite, and the other for charcoal, are furnished with sheet- 
iron shutters, fastening on the inside. Every school-house has, in the cellar, 
an abundant supply of good water, obtained from a fountain, or from a well, 
which is generally outside of the building, the water being brought in by a 
pump [P]. A supply of good water for a school-house should not be consid- 
ered merely as a convenience, but as absolutely necessary. 

The horizontal section of a furnace [P] shows merely the ground plan. 
The cold air passes through [«] to the air-chamber, where it is warmed by the 
fires in \_p, pi, two cast-iron cylinders, fourteen inches in diameter. The 
evaporator [e] holds about fifteen gallons of water, which is kept in a state of 
rapid evaporation, thus supplying the air-chamber with an abundance of 
moisture. 

In the plan and construction of the various parts of these furnaces, special 
pains have been taken to remove all danger of fire — an important considera- 
tion, which should never be overlooked. The furnace is covered with stone, 
thickly coated with mortar, and the under side of the floor above is lathed and 
plastered, not only above the furnace, but at least ten feet from it in every 
direction. 

A full description of the construction and operation of the furnaces used in 
the public school-houses will be given under another diagram. The cellar 
walls and the stone piers [c, c, c, c, c) are well pointed, and the whole inside, 



GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE, 



243 



including the wood-work overhead, is neatly whitewashed, giving this apart- 
ment a neat and pleasant appearance. 

The walls of all these buildings are of stone, about two feet thick, faced 
with common brick, and painted a tasteful color. 



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No. 11. — Plan of the First Floor of a Grarrimar School-House. 

There are three entrances to these houses; the front [A], and the two side 
doors [B], for boys, and [G], for girls, leading into the entries [P, C, C]. The 
front is a large double door, with a beautiful frontice of fine hammered duincy 
granite. At all the outside doors are two or three hewn granite steps, fur- 
nished with four or six scrapers at each door. 

Pupils belonging to the schools in the lower story pass from the side entries 
into the middle one, and, ascending two steps at [a], enter their respective 
rooms [T, S], which are rather larger than those in the primary and interme- 
diate school-houses, previously described, being thirty-six feet by thirty-two 
inside, and eleven feet high in the clear. 

In each of the entries [C, C] there is a provision [t, t, t, f] for setting up um- 
brellas. It resembles a ladder placed in a horizontal position, and is fastened 
to the ceiling on one side, and supported on the other by substantial posts of 
oak or other strong wood, turned in a tasteful style, and set into the floor. 

The seals and desks in the rooms [T and S] are of the same dimensions, 
and arranged in the same manner as those in the primary and the intermediate 
school-rooms before described. The small iron posts [c, c,c,c], about two and 
a half inches in diameter, supporting the floor above, are placed against the 
ends of the seats, so close as not to obstruct the passages at all. Besides the 
platforms [P, P], twenty feet by six — the tables, three feet by four, for the 
teachers, and the closets [I, I], for brushes, &c, there are black-boards, painted 
upon the walls, extending from the doors [D, D] to the windows, fourteen feet 
long by four wide, with the lines of a stave painted on one end, to aid in 
giving instruction in vocal music. 



244 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The plan of ventilating these rooms on the first floor is represented by cut 
No. 5, page 85. Every room is provided with two ventilators, each three feet 
long by about twelve inches wide, opening into flues of the same dimensions, 
leading into the attic, from which the impure air escapes at circular windows 
in the gables. These flues should have extended down to the bottom of the 
rooms, with openings on a level with the floors, so that, when the rooms are 
warmed with air from the furnaces above the temperature of the human 
breath, they might be ventilated by removing the foul air from the lower parts, 
and thus causing fresh, warm air to be slowly settling down upon the scholars 
— a very pleasant and healthful mode of ventilation. 

These rooms are well warmed by heated air, admitted through registers 
[r, /■], eighteen inches in diameter, from the furnace below, from which [p,p] 
tin pipes, fourteen inches in diameter, convey the air to the grammar school- 
rooms in the second story. 

These rooms are large, with arched ceilings, measuring twelve feet to the 
foot of the arch, and seventeen to its crown. They are each provided with 
two ventilators, three feet and a half in diameter, placed in the crown of the 
arch, about twenty feet apart. 

The entrances to the Grammar School-rooms are by two short flights of 
stairs on a side ; from the lower entries to [s,s], spaces about three feet square, 




'*=! _ ""-' J— ' 



No. 12. — Plan of a Grammar School-Room. 

anl thence to [A, A], spaces three by five feet, extending from the top of the 
stairs to the doors opening into the school-room. 

The master's table [c], as well as tables [d, d], for the assistants, are 
movable. The large area [B, B], being fourteen inches above the floor of the 
room, is eight feet wide by sixty-four long, with large closets [u, u] at the 
ends, fitted up with shelves, &c, for the use of the teachers. 

The school-room is warmed by heated air, admitted at the registers, [r,rj 
and the recitation-rooms [R, R] in the same manner, by the small registers, 
L?,r] all of which are connected with the furnace in the cellar by large tin 
pipes or conductors. 



GRAMMAR SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



245 



The black-boards, four feet wide, painted upon the hard-finished walls, are 
indicated by the lines [b,b,b, &c] in the recitation-rooms, and along the walls 
behind the master's table, extending on each side to the windows beyond, [e, e] 
making, in each Grammar School, about three hundred square feet of black- 
board. 

The long benches [e, e] are used for seating temporarily new pupils on their 
entering school, until the master can assign them regular seats ; also for seat- 
ing visitors at the quarterly examinations. The space [P, P], a broad step, 
eighteen feet long and two feet wide, is used for some class exercises on the 
black-boards. The passage [t, t], about eighteen inches wide, running the 
whole length of the room, affords great facility in the movements of pupils to 
and from the recitations and other class exercises. The master's classes gen- 
erally recite in the space [o, o] on the back side of the room, four feet wide 
and sixty-four feet long, where seats are placed for scholars to sit during 
recitation, when it is necessary ; and the same accommodations are provided 
in the recitation-rooms. 

The windows [W, W, &c], which are hung with weights, and furnished 
with inside blinds, in the manner before described, contain twelve lights each, 
of ten by sixteen glass, of the strongest kind, the Saranac or Redford glass. 

The quantity of air furnished for each scholar in the public school-rooms is 
a matter of no small importance. The rooms for the primary and the inter- 
mediate schools — the former designed to accommodate one hundred and 
twenty, and the latter only ninety-six pupils — contain between fifteen and six- 
teen thousand cubic feet of atmospheric air. The rooms for the grammar 
schools, intended to accommodate two hundred pupils, contain over thirty-five 
thousand cubic feet, after a suitable deduction for the furniture is made. 

This estimate allows every child, when the rooms are not crowded, about 
one hundred and fifty cubic feet of air for every hour and a half, on the sup- 
position that no change takes place, except at the times of recess, and at the 
close of each session. But the rate at which warm air is constantly coming 
into the rooms from the furnaces, increases the allowance for every child to 
about three hundred cubic feet for every hour and a half. 




No. 13.— Transverse Section of a Grammar School-House. 



246 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The preceding cut is given in order to show an end view, the projection, belfry, 
rooms, seats, desks, and cellar. An imperfect section of the warming appa- 
ratus is presented, giving an outline of the plan of its construction. The 
smoke-pipe, connected with [a], the heater, coiled twice around in the air- 
chamber, passes off in the direction of [b, b] to the chimney. The short tin 
pipes [c, c) conduct the warm air into the lower rooms ; and the long ones 
0, e] convey it to the rooms in the second story. On each side of the projec- 
tion over the door [d] is a window, lighting the outside entry, and also the 
middle entry by another window over the inside door. The end views of seats 
and desks do not represent the different sizes very accurately, but sufficiently 
so to give a correct idea of the general plan. 



The High School-House. 



This building occupies an elevated and beautiful situation, at the head of 
President street, near the central part of the city. , It is a specimen of plain, 
but tasteful architecture, on which the eye reposes with pleasure. The lot, 
somewhat irregular in its form, is equivalent to one a hundred feet by a hun- 
dred and fifteen, and lies on a gentle hill-side, rendering it easy to construct a 
basement almost entirely above ground, except on the back side. The exten- 
sive grounds in front, and on either side, all planted with trees, and separated 
from the High School only by the width of the streets, add much to the beauty 
and pleasantness of its situation. The yards around it are inclosed bv a 
handsome baluster fence, resting in front on heavy blocks of rough granite. 
The steps are of hewn granite, twelve feet long, making a very convenient 
entrance. 

The High School being designed for both boys and girls, an entirely separate 
entrance is provided for each department. The front door, at which the girls 
enter, has a very beautiful frontispiece, with double columns (thus providing 
for large side-lights), and a heavy ornamented cap, all cut from duincy granite 
in the best style. 

The door in the circular projection, fronting on another street, has also a 
fine frontispiece, cut from duincy granite. 

The size of this building is fifty feet by seventy-six, with a projection of 
seven feet. The walls of the basement are of stone, three feet thick, and faced 
with rough-hewn granite, laid in courses twenty inches wide. Each stone has 
a "chiseled draft, fine cut," an inch wide around the face, and all the joints 
as close and true as if the whole were fine hammered. The remaining por- 
tions of the walls, diminishing in thickness as they rise, are faced with the 
best quality of Danvers pressed brick, giving the building a beautiful appear- 
ance. The roof is covered with tin, every joint soldered, and the whole sur- 
face kept well painted. 

The rooms in the basement story, which is twelve feet high in the clear, are 
separated from each other by solid brick walls. The pupils in the girls' de- 
partment, entering the house at [A], pass into the large lobby [C], twelve feet 
by twenty-eight, from which they can go to all parts of the building appro- 
priated to their use. 

The furnace-room [H] has a brick floor, and is kept in as good order as the 
other parts of the house. The coal-bins in, n] and the furnace [F] are so con- 
structed, that, with an ordinary degree of care, the room may be kept as clean 
as any of the school-rooms. The arrangements [m, m] for setting up um- 
brellas have been described. The pump [p], accessible to all in the girls' 
department, connected with a nice sink, lined with lead, affords an abundant 
supply of excellent water. The rooms [E, G, I], each not far from sixteen by 
twenty-four feet, are appropriated as the Superintendent's Office, and for such 
meetings of the School Committee, and of its sub-committees, as may be ap- 
pointed there. 

The large lecture-room, on the opposite side of the lobby, is furnished with 
settees, which will accommodate about two hundred and fifty pupils. On the 



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248 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




No. 15. — Plan of the Basement of High School. 



platform [P], raised seven inches from the floor, a long table or counter [d], 
made convenient for experimental lectures in Chemistry, Natural Philosophy, 
&c, having pneumatic cisterns for holding gasses. At [F, &c] are suitable 
provisions for the fires used in the preparations of chemical experiments. 
The pump [p], with a sink like the other, is used exclusively by the pupils in 
the boys' department. 

In all lectures, and other exercises in this room, the girls, entering at [a], 
occupy the seats on the right of [D], the middle aisle. The boys, entering by 
descending the short flight of stairs [b~\, are seated on the opposite side of the 
room. This may seem like descending to useless particulars, but it is done to 
show that there are no grounds for the objections sometimes made against 
having a school for boys and for girls in the same building, where the depart- 
ments are kept entirely separate, except in exercises in vocal music and occa- 
sional lectures. The boys enter the house at the end door [B], which is six 
feet above the basement floor, and, by a short flight of stairs, they reach the 
first story at [e]. 

The three rooms [C, D, F] are appropriated to the department for girls. 
They are easy of access to the pupils, who, ascending the broad flight of 
stairs, terminating at [B], can pass readily into their respective rooms. 

The course of instruction in the school occupying three years, the room [D] 
is appropriated to the studies for the first, [E] to those of the second, and 
[F] to the course for the third year. In each room there are three sizes of 
seats and desks, and their arrangement in all is uniform. The largest are on 
the back side of the room. The largest desks are four feet eight inches long, 
and twenty-two inches wide on the top ; the middle size is two inches smaller, 
and the other is reduced in the same proportions. The largest seats are as 
high as common chairs, about seventeen inches, and the remaining sizes are 
reduced to correspond with the desks. The passages around the sides of the 
rooms vary from two to four feet wide, and those between the rows of desks, 
from eighteen to twenty-four inches. 

On the raised platforms [P, P, P, P] are the teachers' tables [d, d, d, d], 
covered with dark woolen cloth, and furnished with four drawers each. The 
registers [/,/,/,/] admit the warm air from the furnace, and the pipes [^,^,p] 
conduct it into the rooms in the upper story. The passage [£] leads into the 
back yard, which is ornamented with a variety of shrubbery. 



HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 



249 




No. 16.— Plan of the First Story of the High School. 



• The door leading from the room [P] is used only for teachers and visitors, 
except when the two departments assemble in the hall. 

In the room [C] the boys pursue the studies prescribed for the first year; 
the other rooms in this department are in the next story. 

Pupils ascending from the area [e], by two circular stairwajrs, land on the 
broad space [a, c], from which, by a short flight of stairs, they reach [A], in 
the following cut, the floor of the upper story, which is sixteen feet in the clear. 




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No. 17.— Plan of the Second Story of the High School-House 



250 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




The room [B] is appropriated to the middle class, and [CJ to the senio? 
class. The arrangement of the seats and desks are 
the same as in the other rooms, exeept they are 
'movable — being- screwed to a frame not fastened to 
the floor, as shown in this ent. 

The cross partition [«] — see cut No. 17 — is com- 
posed of four very large doors, about fourteen feet 
square, hung with weights in such a manner that 
they may be raised into the attic, thus throwing the whole upper story into one 
large hall — an arrangement by which one room can be changed into three, and 
three into one, as the occasion may require. On all public occasions, such as- 
CLuarterly Examinations,, aad Annual Exhibitions, the rooms are thus thrown 
together, and the seats and desks turned so as to face the platform [Pj, in 
[E], the principal hall. 

Observation and experiment, relative to the modes of wanning the public 
school-rooms, have proved that very large stoves, eighteen inches in diameter, 
render the temperature of the rooms more uniform and pleasant, and that they 
are also more economical, both in regard to the amount of fuel consumed, and 
the amount of repairs required. It is a general principle, that a warming 
apparatus, containing a large quantity of fuel, undergoing a slow Gombustion, 
is better than one containing a small quantity of fuel, in a state of rapid com- 
bustion. The stoves in the small buildings, and the furnaces in the large 
ones, are constructed on this- principle. 

In regard to the construction of furnaces for warming public buildings or 
private dwellings, so much depends upon circumstances, that no specific plan 
can be given which would be successful in all cases. One familiar with the 
principles which regulate the motions of currents of air at different tempera- 
tures, ean, with an ordinary degree of good judgment and mechanical skilly 
make a furnace in any place, where one can be made at all, that will accom- 
plish all which the laws of nature will permit. 

The following cut is intended to illustrate two plans for a furnace. 




No. 18. — A Vertical Section of a Furnace. 



In the first, the cold air is admitted afe [a], through the outside walls of the 
fouilding, and descends in the direction described by the arrows, to [r], and 
thence rises to the top of the furnace, as shown by the arrows. At this place, 
the cold air diffuses itself over the whole upper surface, about eight feet by 
ten, and passes down between the double walls of the furnace, in the spaces 
% t\ which extend all around the furnace, and rises from beneath, through a 



HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE, PROVIDENCE. 251 

targe opening lb], into the air-chamber, where it is heated and conducted to 
the rooms by large pipes, [/, h]. The object of this mode of taking in air is 
two-fold. In the first place, the constant currents of cold air, passing over the 
top of the furnace, keep that surface comparatively cool, and also keep the 
floors above the furnace cool, thus removing all danger of setting fire to the 
wood-work over the furnace. 

In the second place, as the inside walls are constantly becoming heated, 
and the currents of cold air, passing down on all sides of the walls, become 
ranfied by their radiation, and thus, as it were, take the heat from the outside 
of the inner walls, and bring it round into the air-chamber again, at [b]. This 
is not mere theory, but has been found to work well in practice. On this 
plan, the outside walls are kept so cool, that very little heat is wasted by 
radiation. 

In the second plan, the cold air is admitted as before; but, instead of 
ascending from [?■] to the top of the furnace, it passes through a large opening, 
directly from [r], to lp,p,p], representing small piers, supporting the inside 
walls, and thence into the air-chamber at lb], and also up the spaces It, t], to 
the top Is], from which the air warmed by coming up between the walls is 
taken into the rooms by separate registers, or is let into the sides of the 
pipes if. A], 

By this plan, the air passes more rapidly through the air-chamber, and enters 
the rooms in larger quantities, but at a lower temperature. This is the better 
mode, if the furnace be properly constructed with large inlets and outlets for 
air, so that no parts become highly heated ; otherwise, the wood- work over the 
furnace will be in some danger of taking fire. The general defects in the 
construction of furnaces are: — too small openings for the admission of cold 
air — too small pipes for conveying the warm air in all horizontal and inclined 
directions — and defective dampers in the perpendicular pipes. A frequeni 
c,ause of failure in warming public buildings and private dwellings may be 
found in the ignorance and negligence of attendants. 

A single remark will close this report, which has been extended, perhaps 
too far by specific details — a want of which is often complained of by me- 
chanics who are engaged in building school-houses. 

It is believed to be best, and, all things considered, cheapest, in the end, tc 
build very good school-houses — to make their external appearance pleasan 
and attractive, and their internal arrangements comfortable and convenient— 
to keep them in first-rate order, well repaired, and always clean. 

The amount of damage done to school property in this city has uniformly 
been least in those houses in Ajjhich the teachers have done most to keep ever; 
thing in very good order. The very appearance of school property well take', 
care of rebukes the spirit of mischief, and thus elevates the taste and char 
acter of the pupils. 

Respectfully submitted. 

N. BISHOP, 
Superintendent of Public Schools, 

Providence, August, 1846. 



252 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Since the foregoing Report was published, important alterations 
have been made in several of the Grammar and Primary School- 
houses of Providence. In the Grammar School-houses, a projection 
of the same size and in the same relative position as that in front of 
the building, is carried up in the rear so as to secure two additional 
rooms for recitation on the second floor, and one for each school- 
room on the first. A second story has been added to the Primary 
School-houses, so as to accommodate a large number of pupils, and 
secure a better classification of the same. The Superintendent, than 
whom no one in the country has a better scientific and practical 
knowledge of the subject, has devised a plan of ventilation, at once 
cheap and thorough, which will be carried out as soon as means for 
this purpose are placed at the disposal of the School Committee by 
the City Council. 

The following cut presents a front elevation of one of the new 
Intermediate School-houses in Providence, designed by Mr. Teft. 




The only private school edifice in Providence which can be com- 
pared with the Public School-houses, is a beautiful structure erected 
by Mr. John Kingsbury, at his own expense, after plans of Mr. Teft, 
for the accommodation of a school of forty girls. This house is 
a perfect gem in school architecture, and no young lady can be edu- 
cated within its walls without receiving not only the benefit of its 
every appliance for health, comfort and neatness, but at the same 
time, some advancement in esthetical culture from the exhibition of 
taste all around her. 

The improvements in education, introduced by Mr. Kingsbury in 
his private school from 1826 to 1838, prepared the way for improve- 
ments in the organization and instruction of the public schools, and 
the improvement of the latter since 1840, have made it necessary for 
Mr. Kingsbury to take and maintain still higher ground. Mr. 
Kingsbury has always given his best efforts to improve the public 
schools. 



public high school. 253 

Public High School. 

In-the preceding pages we have presented a variety of plans for 
the construction and internal arrangements of buildings designed and 
erected for Public High Schools. Whenever and wherever the 
interest of the community can be sufficiently awakened to call for a 
public school of the grade generally understood by the term High 
School, there will be no difficulty in raising the funds necessary to 
erect and furnish a suitable edifice for the accommodation of the 
school. It may not, then, be amiss in this place to present a few 
considerations and facts bearing upon the establishment of a school 
of this grade in every large village and city in our country. 

By a Public or Common High School, is intended a public or 
common school for the older and more advanced scholars of the 
community in which the same is located, in a course of instruction 
adapted to their age, and intellectual and moral wants, and, to some 
extent, to their future pursuits in life. It is common or public in the 
same sense in which the district school, or any lower grade of school 
established and supported under a general law and for the public 
benefit, is common or public. It is open to all the children of the 
community to which the school belongs, under such regulations as 
to age, attainments, &c, as the good of the institution may require, 
or the community mav^adopt. A Public High School is not neces- 
sarily a free school. [It may be supported by a fund, a public tax, 
or an assessment or rate of tuition per scholar, or by a combination 
of all, or any two of these modes7\ Much less is it a public or com- 
mon school in the sense of being-^cheap, inferior, ordinary. To be 
truly a public school, a High School must embrace in its course of 
instruction studies which can be more profitably pursued there than 
in public schools of a lower grade, or which gather their pupils from 
a more circumscribed territory, and as profitably as in any private 
school of the same pretensions. It must make a good education 
common in the highest and best sense of the word common — common 
because it is good enough for the best, and cheap enough for the 
poorest family in the community. It would be a mockery of the idea 
of such a school, to call it a Public High School, if the course of 
instruction pursued in it is not higher and better than can be got in 
public schools of a lower grade, or if it does not meet the wants of 
the wealthiest and best educated families, or, if the course of instruc- 
tion is liberal and thorough, and at the same time the worthy and 
talented child of a poor family is shut out from its privileges by a 
high rate of tuition. The school, to be common practically, must be 
both cheap and good.~"\To be cheap, its support must be provided for \ 
wholly or mainly out of a fund, or by public tax. And to justify the ! 
imposition of a public tax, the advantages of such a school rmiat 
accrue to the whole community. It must be shown to be a common 
benefit, a common interest, which cannot be secured so well, or at 



254 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

all, except through the medium of taxation. "What, then, are the 
advantages which may reasonably be anticipated from the establish- 
ment of a Public High School, properly organized, instructed, and 
supervised ? 

First. Every thing which is now done in the several district 
schools, and schools of lower grade, can be better done, and in a 
shorter time, because the teachers will be relieved from the neces- 
sity of devoting the time and attention now required by few of the 
older and more advanced pupils, and can bestow all their time and 
attention upon the preparatory studies and younger children. These 
studies will be taught in methods suited to the age and attainments 
of the pupils. A right beginning can thus be made in the lower 
schools, in giving a thorough practical knowledge of elementary 
principles, and in the formation of correct mental and moral habits, 
which are indispensable to all sound education. All this will be 
done under the additional stimulus of being early and thoroughly 
fitted for the High School. 

Second. A High School will give completeness to the system of 
public instruction which may be in operation. It will make suitable 
provision for the older and more advanced pupils of both sexes, and 
will admit of the methods of instruction and discipline which cannot 
be profitably introduced into the schools below. The lower grade 
of schools — those which are established for young children, — require 
a large use of oral and simultaneous methods, and a frequent change 
of place and position on the part of the pupils. The higher branches, 
especially all mathematical subjects, require patient application and 
habits of abstraction on the part of the older pupils, which can with 
difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils amid a multiplicity of 
distracting exercises, movements, and sounds. The recitations of 
this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactory, must be con- 
ducted in a manner which requires time, discussion, and explanation, 
and the undivided attention both of pupils and teacher. The course 
of instruction provided in the High School will be equal in extent 
and value to that which may be given in any private school, academy, 
or female seminary in the place, and which is now virtually denied 
to the great mass of the children by the burdensome charge of 
tuition. 

As has been already implied, the advantages of a High School 
should not be confined to the male sex. The- great influence of the 
female sex, as daughters, sisters, wives, mothers, companions, and 
teachers, in determining the manners, morals, and intelligence of the 
whole community, leaves no room to question the necessity of pro- 
viding for the girls the best means of intellectual and moral culture. 
The course of instruction should embrace the first principles of 
natural and mechanical philosophy, by which inventive genius and 
practical skill in the useful arts can be fostered ; such studies as 
navigation, book-keeping, surveying, botany, chemistry, and kindred 
studies, which are directly connected with success in the varied 
departments of domestic and inland trade, with foreign commerce, 
with gardening, agriculture, the manufacturing and domestic arts; 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 255 

such studies as astronomy, physiology, the history of our own state 
and nation, the principles of our state and national constitutions, 
political economy, and moral science ; in fine, such a course of study 
as is now given in more than fifty towns and cities in New England, 
and which shall prepare every young man, whose parents may desire 
it, for business, or for college, and give to every young woman a well 
disciplined mind, high moral aims, refined tastes, gentle and graceful 
manners, practical views of her own duties, and these resources of 
health, thought, conversation, and occupation, which bless alike the 
highest and lowest station in life. When such a course is provided 
and carried out, the true idea of the High School will be realized. 

Third It will equalize the opportunities of a good education, and 
exert a happy, social influence throughout the whole community from 
which it gathers its scholars. From the want of a public school of 
this character, the children of such families as rely exclusively on 
the district school are isolated, and are condemned to an inferior 
education, both in quality and quantity ; they are cut off from the 
stimulus and sympathy which the mingling of children of the same 
age from different parts of the same community would impart. The 
benefits, direct and indirect, which will result to the country dis- 
tricts, or poor families who live in the outskirts of the city, from the 
establishment of a school of this class, cannot easily be overesti- 
mated. The number of young men and young women who will 
receive a thorough education, qualifying them for business, and to be 
teachers, will increase from year to year ; and the number who will 
press up to the front ranks of scholarship in the-school, bearing away 
the palm of excellence by the vigor of sound minds in sound bodies, 
of minds and bodies made vigorous by long walks and muscular labor 
in the open air, will be greater in proportion to their number than 
from the city districts. It will do both classes good, the children of 
the city, and the children of the country districts, to measure them- 
selves intellectually in the same fields of study, and to subject the 
peculiarities of their respective manners, the roughness and awk- 
wardness sometimes characteristic of the one, and the artificiality 
and flippancy of the other., to the harmonizing influence of reciprocal 
action and reaction. The isolation and estrangement which now 
divide and subdivide the community into country and city clans, 
which, if not hostile, are strangers to each other, will give place to 
the frequent intercourse and esteem of individual and family friend- 
ship, commenced in the school-room, and on the play-ground of the 
school. The school will thus become a bond of union, a channel of 
sympathy, a spring-head of healthy influence, and stimulus to the 
whole commnnity. 

Fourth. The privileges of a good school will be brought within 
the reach of all classes of the community, and will actually be en- 
joyed by children of the same age from families of the most diverse 
circumstances as to wealth, education, and occupation. Side by side 
in the same recitations, heart and hand in the same sports, pressing 
up together to the same high attainments in knowledge and charac- 
ters will be found the children of the rich and poor, the more and the 



256 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

less favored in outward circumstances, without knowing or caring to 
know how far their families are separated by the arbitrary distinc- 
tions which divide and distract society. With nearly equal oppor- 
tunities of education in childhood and youth, the prizes of life, its 
best fields of usefulness, and sources of happiness will be open to 
all, whatever may have been their accidents of birth and fortune. 
From many obscure and humble homes in the city and in the country, 
will be called forth and trained inventive talent, productive skill, in- 
tellectual taste, and God-like benevolence, which will add to the 
general wealth, multiply workshops, increase the value of farms, and 
carry forward every moral and religious enterprise which aims to 
bless, purify, and elevate society. 

Fifth. The influence which the annual or semi-annual examina- 
tion of candidates for admission into the High School, will operate 
as a powerful and abiding stimulus to exertion throughout all the 
lower schools. The privileges of the High School will be held 
forth as the reward of exertion in the lower grade of schools ; and 
promotion to it, based on the result of an impartial examination, will 
form an unobjectional standard by which the relative standing of the 
different schools can be ascertained, and will also indicate the studies 
and departments of education to which the teachers in particular 
schools should devote special attention. This influence upon the 
lower schools, upon scholars and teachers, upon those who reach, 
and those who do not reach the High School, will be worth more 
than all it costs, independent of the advantages received by its pupils. 
Sixth. While the expenses of public or common schools will 
necessarily be increased by the establishment of a school of this class, 
in addition to those already supported, the aggregate expenditures 
for education, including public and private schools, will be diminished. 
Private schools of the same relative standing will be discontinued 
for want of patronage, while those of a higher grade, if really called 
for by the educational wants of the community, will be improved. A 
healthy competition will necessarily exist between the public and 
private schools of the highest grade, and the school or schools which 
do not come up to the highest mark, must go down in public estima- 
tion. Other things being equal, viz., school-houses, teachers, clas- 
sification, and the means and appliances of instruction, the public 
school is always better than the private. From the uniform experi- 
ence of those places where a High School has been established, it 
may be safely stated, that there will be an annual saving in the 
expenses of education to any community, equal to one half the amount 
paid for tuition in private schools, and, with this saving of expense, 
there will be a better state of education. 

Seventh. The successful establishment of a High School, by im- 
proving the whole system of common schools, and interesting a larger 
number of families in the prosperity of the schools, will create a 
better public sentiment on the subject than has heretofore existed, 
and the schools will be regarded as the common property, the com- 
mon glory, the common security of the whole community. The 
wealthy will feel that the small additional tax required to establish 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 257 

and sustain this school, if not saved to them in the diminished tuition 
for the education of their own children in private schools, at home 
and abroad, is returned to them a hundred fold in the enterprise 
which it will, quicken, in the increased value given to property, and 
in the number of families which will resort to the place where it is 
located, as a desirable residence, because of the facilities enjoyed 
for a good education. The poor will feel that, whatever may betide 
them, their children are born to an inheritance more valuable than 
lands or shops, in the free access to institutions where as good an 
education can be had as money can buy at home or abroad. The 
stranger will be invited to visit not only the institutions which public 
or individual benevolence has provided for the poor, the orphan, the 
deaf mute, and the criminal, but schools where the children and 
youth of the community are trained to inventive and creative habits 
of mind, to a practical knowledge of the fundamental principles of 
business, to sound moral habits, refined tastes, and respectful man- 
ners. And in what balance, it has well been asked, in reference to 
the cost of good public schools, as compared with these advantages, 
shall we weigh the value of cultivated, intelligent, energetic, polished, 
and virtuous citizens 1 How much would a community be justified 
in paying for a physician who should discover or practice some mode 
of treatment through which many lives should be preserved ? How 
much for a judge, who, in the able administration of the laws, should 
secure many fortunes, or rights more precious than fortunes, that 
might else be lost ? How much for a minister of religion who should 
be the instrument of saving hundreds from vice and crime, and per- 
suading them to the exertion of their best powers for the common 
good 1 How much for the ingenious inventor, who, proceeding from 
the first principles of science onward, should produce some improve- 
ment that should enlarge all the comforts of society, not to say a 
steam-engine or a magnetic telegraph ? How much for the patriotic 
statesman, who, in difficult times, becomes the savior of his country ? 
How much for the well-instructed and enterprising merchant who 
should suggest and commence the branches of business that should 
bring in a vast accession of wealth and strength ? One such person 
as any of these might repay what a High School would cost for 
centuries. Whether, in the course of centuries, every High School 
would produce one such person, it would be useless to prophesy. 
But it is certain that it would produce many intelligent citizens, 
intelligent men of business, intelligent servants of the state, intelli- 
gent teachers, intelligent wives and daughters, who, in their several 
spheres, would repay to any community much more than they arid 
all their associates had received. The very taxes of a town, in 
twenty years, will be lessened by the existence of a school which 
will continually have sent forth those who were so educated as to 
become not burdens but benefactors. 

These results have been realized wherever a Public High School 
has been opened under circumstances favorable to the success of a 
private school of the same grade, — wherever a good school-house, 
good regulations, (for admission, attendance, studies, a»i books,) 
good teachers, and good supervision have been provided. 



258 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The Principal of the Latin High School of Boston, in a letter 

written 1846, says, — 

" There is no institution so truly republican as such a school as this. While we, 
the present teachers, were undergraduates of the school, the rich sent their sons 
to the school because it was the best that could be found. They ascertained that 
it was not a source of contamination, but that their boys learned here to compare 
themselves with others, and to feel the necessity of something more that mere 
wealth to gain consideration. At that time, poor men sent their sons hither be- 
cause they knew that they here would get that education which they could afford 
togive them in no other way. They gained loo by intercourse with their wealthier 
mates a polish of exterior manners, and an intellectual turn of mind which 
their friends could appreciate and perceive, although they could not tell what it 
was that had been acquired. Oftentimes also the poor boy would take the lead 
of his more pampered classmate, and take the honors of the school. 

In a class lately belonging to the school were two boys, one the son of a man 
of extreme wealth, whose property cannot be less than $500,000; and the other 
the son of an Irish laborer employed by the city at a dollar a day to sweep the 
streets. The latter boy was the better scholar." 

The Principal of the English High School in a letter writes, — 

" The school under my charge is pricipally composed of what are called the 
middling classes of our city. At present, about one third of my pupils are sons 
of merchants ; the remaining two thirds are sons of professional men, mechan- 
ics and others. Some of our best scholars are sons of coopers, lamplighters, 
and day laborers. A few years ago, he who ranked, the last year of his course, 
as our third scholar, was the son of a lamplighter, and worked three nights per 
week, during his whole course, to save his father the expense of books, &c, 
while at school. This year my second (if not the first,) scholar, is a cooper's 
son. We have several sons of clergymen of distinction and lawyers of emi- 
nence. Indeed, the school is a perfect example of the poor and the rich, meet- 
ing on common ground and on terms quite democratic. 

The Principal of the High School for girls in Newburyport, writes, 

" The Female High School was established by the town of Newburyport 
nearly three years since, under great opposition. It was the desire of its princi- 
pal advocates to make it such a school, in respect to the course of instruction, 
and facilities for acquiring knowledge, and laying the foundation for usefulness, 
as should so successfully compete with our best private schools, as to supersede 
their necessity." 

" A few days after we were organized, a gentleman came into the school- 
room to make some inquiries respecting the classes of society most fully rep- 
resented amongst us. I was totally unable to give him the desired information, 
andjudging from the appearance of the individuals of my charge, I could form 
no idea as to who were the children of poor parents, or of those in better cir- 
cumstances. I mentioned the names of the parents of several, which I had 
just taken, and, amongst others, of two young ladies of seventeen or eighteen 
years of age, who, at that moment, it being recess, were walking down the 
room, with their arms closely entwined about each other's necks. ' The first 
of the two,' said the gentleman, ' is a daughter of one of our first merchants, 
the other has a father worse than none, who obtains a livelihood from one of the 
lowest and most questionable occupations, and is himself most degraded.' 
These two young ladies were classmates for more than two years, and very 
nearly equal in scholarship. The friendship they have formed, I am confident 
no circumstances of station in life can ever impair. 

" We have had in our number many from the best families, in all respects, in 
the place. They sit side by side, they recite, and they associate most freely 
with those of the humblest parentage, whose widowed mothers, perhaps, toil 
day after day, at a wash-tub, without fear of contamination, or, as I honestly 
believe, a thought of the differences which exist. I have, at present, both ex- 
tremes under my charge — the child of affluence and the child of low parentage 
and deep poverty. As my arrangements of pupils in divisions, &c. are, most of 
them, alphabetical, it often happens that the two extremes are brought together. 
This never causes a murmur, or look of dislike. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL. 259 

A member of the School Committee of Worcester, Mass., writes : 

" Our High School is exceedingly popular with all classes, and in the school- 
rooms and on the play-grounds, the children of the richest and poorest mingle 
■with perfect equality. No assumption, — no jealousy are seen among them. I 
have been charmed with this republican and Christian character of the school. 
I have seen the children of parents whose wealth was estimated by hundreds of 
thousands, in the same school-room with children (and those last among the 
best scholars of their class) whose parents have been assisted year after year 
by individual charity. The manners, habits, and moral sentiments of this 
school are as pure and high as in any academy, or female seminary of the 
same grade in the commonwealth. 

" To the improvements of our public schools, which has been going steadily 
forward since 1825, does this town owe more of its prosperity, its large acces- 
sion of families from abroad, especially of industrious and skillful mechanics, 
than to all other causes combined. As a mere investment of capital, men of 
wealth everywhere cannot do better with a portion of their property than 
to build elegant and attractive school-houses, and open in them free schools 
of the highest order of instruction. They will then see gathering around 
them men, it may be, of small means, but of practical skill, and moral and 
industrious habits ; that class of families who feel that one of the great ends 
of life is to educate their children well." 

A correspondent from Brattleboro', Vt., writes : 

"In the same school-room, seated side by side, according to age and attain- 
ments, are eighty children, representing all classes and conditions in society. 
The lad or miss, whose father pays a school tax of thirty-five dollars, by the 
side of another whose expense of instruction is five cents per awrvwm. They 
play cordially and happily on the same grounds, and pursue the same studies — 
the former frequently incited by the native superiority and practical good sense 
of the latter. While the contact corrects the factitious gentility and false ideas 
of superiority in the one, it encourages cleanliness and good breeding in the 
other." 

The history of the High School in Providence is the history of 
almost every similar institution. 

" The High School was the only feature of our system which encountered 
much opposition. When first proposed, its bearings on the schools below, and 
in various ways on the cause of education in the city, was not clearly seen. It 
was opposed because it was " aristocratic," " because it was unconstitutional 
to tax property for a city college," " because it would educate children above 
working for their support," " because a poor boy or girl would never be seen in 
it" — and for all such contradictory reasons. Before it became a part of the 
system, the question of its adoption, or rejection, was submitted directly to the 
people, who passed in its favor by a vote of two thirds of all the legal voters of 
the city. Even after this expression of popular vote in its favor, and after the 
building for its accommodation was erected, there was a considerable minority 
who circulated a petition to the City Council against its going into operation. 
But the school was opened, and now it would be as easy to strike out the whole 
or any other feature of the system as this. Its influence in giving stimulus and 
steadiness to the workings of the lower grade of schools, — in giving thorough- 
ness and expansion to the whole course of instruction, — in assisting to train 
teachers for our city and country schools, — and in bringing together the older 
and more advanced pupils, of either sex, from families of every profession, oc- 
cupation and location in the city, many of whom, but for the opportunities of 
this school, would enter on the business and duties of life with an imperfect 
education — has demonstrated its own usefulness as a part of the system, and 
has converted its opponents into friends." 

Testimony of the same character might be adduced from Phila- 
delphia, Lowell, New Orleans, and every place where a school of 
this grade has been established. 



260 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plans of School-Houses with Apartments for the Teacher, 

In the " Series of Plans for School-houses," published by the Commit- 
tee of Council on Education, for the benefit of such schools as apply for 
the benefit of the Parliamentary Grant for promoting Public Education 
in Great Britain, provision is uniformly made for apartments, or a dwell- 
ing-house, for the master. This would be a wise and economical arrange- 
ment in connection with our district and village school-houses. The prop- 
erty of the district would be better cared for, and more of permanence 
and character would soon attach to the employment of teaching, if suita- 
ble apartments in the same building were provided for the teacher. We 
do not propose at this time to present any plan, framed in reference both 
to the accommodation of the school and of the teacher, but have made 
the foregoing statement as explanatory of some peculiarities in the fol- 
lowing plans, copied mostly from the work above referred to. Our object 
in giving the following plans is to introduce committees and others to a 
different style of architecture than has thus far been adopted in structures 
of this kind. It will not. be difficult for any one familiar with drafting 
plans to adapt this style to the particular wants of any district or village. 

No. 1. This plan contemplates a school-room 22 by 15 feet for 30 chil- 
dren, with apartments for the master consisting of one sitting-room, (13 by 
10) one bedroom. (10 by 10,) and a kitchen (12 by 6,) with two closets 
(6 by 6 each) attached. These arrangements are limited to the strictest 
simplicity. The small window in the wing or projection lights the mas- 
ter's bed-room. In all the plans an independent entrance into the mas- 
ter's apartment is provided, and the yards are also distinct. 

No. 2. In this plan the school-room is 29 feet by 18, with two lobbies, 
and a closet in the rear, each 6 feet by 4, and will accommodate 56 pupils. 
The arrangements for the master are the same as the above. 

No. 3. In this plan the school room is 36 feet by 18, and will accommo- 
date 80 children — with separate lobby, or entry for girls and boys, each 
4 feet by 12, and a closet of the same size. The master's apartments are 
the same in number as in No. 1, but each room is 12 feet by 12. The 
master's desk is between the windows in the front elevation. 

No. 4. In this plan there are two school-rooms, each 28 feet by 16, and 
capable of accommodating 55 pupils, with a lobby 12 feet by 5 on each 
side, into which the door represented on the side elevation opens. Be- 
tween the lobbies are the master's bedroom and sitting room, each 13 feet 
by 12, and back of them a second bedroom, and the kitchen, each 12 feet 
by 9. The teacher's platform and desk in each room is against the win- 
dows, which are painted in imitation of ground glass. 

No. 5. The plan of which this is the front elevation, contemplates a 
school-room 48 feet by 19, for 112 children, to be taught by one master 
and two pupil teachers. The classes are separated by a screen extend- 
ing from the rear of the room to the teacher's platform. 

No. 6. This plan is designed to accommodate 394 pupils — 150 belong- 
ing to an Infant or Primary department. The arrangement for the schools 
consists of a large hall in the centre, 40 feet by 24, which is occupied by 
the Infant school, and two rooms, each 32 by 18 feet — one of which occu 
pies the wing on the left, and the other being back, of the hall. The 
hall is employed every morning and evening for prayers, and other exer 
cises, in which the whole school can engage. 

The master's house contains a sitting-room, two bedrooms, kitchen, &c, 
aad occupies the right wing of the building. 

No 7. This plan is intended to accommodate the Infant or Primary 
school, of 150 pupils, in a large hall in the main building, (the front of 
which on the first floor is occupied by the master's sitting room, with 



PLANS OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. 



261 




a flight of stairs leading to his other departments in the second story, 
in the basement) and 300 or 400 pupils in four class-rooms, as shown in 
the accompanying drawing on a re- 
duced scale. The Hall, B,^is 54 feet 
by 27, in which the infant school is 
taught, and where the whole school 
is assembled for religious and other 
general exercises. Each of the 
four class-rooms D. each 19 feet by 
17, is divided into two rooms by a 
screen, both of which is under the 
supervision of an assistant teacher, 
who is aided in instruction by one 
pupil teacher. 

No. 8. This plan is designed for 
an infant school of 223 pupils. The 
entrance to the school is by the 
porch lighted by a small window, 
attached to a slight projection on the 
left, with the end towards the spec- 
tator. The entrance to the apart- 
ments of the teacher is by the other porch at the extreme right. 

Nos. 9 and 10. These plans, of which the elevations only are given, will 
accommodate each three schools — one for 150 boys, and another for the 
same number of girls, and a third for a school of 150 infants. 

No. 11. The plan of which a front elevation is given on page 268, 
will accommodate three schools (in all 436 pupils) on the same floor, and 
two families. Two of the school-rooms are in a projection extending 
back 60 feet in the rear of the centre of the main building. 

Nos. 12 and 13. These elevations are given to show how this style of 
architecture can be adapted to buildings of two stories. 

No. 14. Plan of the Willesdon School, drawn and published by H. E. 
Kendall, Jr. This house will accommodate two schools, one for eighty 
boys and the other for the same number of girls, each wing entered from 
the side, with apartments for the teacher entered by the porch in the 
centre. The building is in the mixed Tudor style, and is built of brick. 
The plinths to the porches are of stone, and the window copings, cornice 
and ornaments are executed in cement. The wood-work is finished to 
imitate oak. The whole cost less than $2000. 

This plan is taken from " Designs for Schools and School-houses, by 
H. E. Kendall, Jr., London," in which the Architect has aimed to apply 
the principles of Mediaeval Architecture, as developed in the ecclesiasti- 
cal and collegiate buildings of England and the Low Countries, to village 
schools. The work referred to, contains six designs, modelled after 
schools erected by the author, — all mediaeval in character, and all com- 
bining ornament with simplicity. It is to be hoped that our architects 
will avail themselves of the opportunity now presented, in the increased 
and increasing attention paid all over the country to the establishment 
and improvement of public schools of every grade, to promote a taste for 
the propriety and beauty of their art, by throwing something of comeli- 
ness over the humblest structure designed for the education of childhood 
and youth, and thus creating and stimulating the growing taste of the 
©ommunity for the study of Architecture. 



262 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan — No. 1. Fbont Eletation. 



Plan — No. 1. Side Elevation. 




Plan — No. 2. Fkont Elevation. 




Plan — No. 2. Side Elevation. 




SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



263 



Plan— No. 3. Front Elevation. 




Plan— No. 3. Side Elevation. 




Plan— No. 4. Front Elevation. 




264 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plan— No. 4. Side Elevation. 




Plan — No. 5. Front Elevation. 




Plan— No. 7. Front Elevation. 




= H=££i: 




270 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan— No. 12. Front Elevation. 




Plan— No. 13. Front Elevation. 




272 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 




No. 2. 



Teachers' Desks. 

Much ingenuity has been expended recently in devising and constructing 
Teachers' Desks. Some of them are very simple, being a plain table with one 
or two drawers, — some with the top inclined, and others with the top level ;— 
some with a desk in the centre and a set of drawers on each side ; and others, 
with drawers only on one side ; some with the front finished in a library case, 
and the lower shelf extending into the platform so as to be deep enough to re- 
ceive large maps and diagrams. 

This (No. 1,) is a style 
of Teacher's Desk man- No. 1. 

ufactured by Stephen 
Smith, 44 Cornhill, Bos- 
ton, which is very gener- 
rally used in the schools 
of Boston and vicinity. 
It is made of cherry 6r 
mahogany, and 5 ft. long 
by 2 ft. 6 inches wide — 
with a level top, covered 
with cloth, and with draw- 
ers on each side, leav- 
ing an open space for the 
teacher's feet. The front 
next to the school is neat- 
ly finished. 

No. 2 represents a desk 
3 feet long by 2 feet wide, 
made generally, in style 
and material, like No. 1, 
except that one half of the 
top is flat, and the other 
half inclined. 

We have had a desk 
resembling this construct- 
ed with a drawing board, 
of nearly the same size of 
the top of the desk, insert- 
ed like a drawer immedi- 
ately below it ; and also 
with a large slate, on 
which the teacher could 
enter all minutes, memo- 
randa, &c, inserted on the 
right immediately over 
the drawers represented 
in the cut. The front of 
either of these desks could 
be neatly finished in a 
case, with shelves to re- 
ceive the books of refer- 
ence, where they could be 
conveniently consulted, 
and also protected from 
the dust. 

No. 3 is a style of mova- 
ble desk and stool, on a 
platform raised six inches 
from the .floor, recom- 
mended in the Minutes of 
the Committee of Council on 
Education. The stand- 
ard is of iron with a shelf 
below the desk. 




No. 3. 




SCHOOL-HOUSES IN RHODE ISLAND. 



273 



Plans and Descriptions of School-Houses, recently erected 
in Rhode Island. 

Br the school law of Rhode Island, as revised in 1845, a school 
district cannot receive its distributive share of any appropriation made 
by the State, or the town in which the district is located, for the 
support of public schools, unless such district has complied with the 
requirements of the law, and, among other things, unless one or more 
public schools have been taught in the district by a teacher properly 
qualified, in a school-house approved by the school committee of the town., 
To enable the districts to comply with this provision of the law, the 
general power of taxation, for this and other school purposes, is con- 
ferred on a majority of the legal voters of every school district. To 
protect the. property of a minority, and especially of non-residents, 
from an abuse of this power, and, at the same time, to secure a suit- 
able school-house for the district, the amount of tax to be levied, and 
the location, and plan of the school-house must be approved before- 
hand by the school committee of the town, or the Commissioner of 
Public Schools for the State. It is also made the duty of the State 
Commissioner, "to diffuse, as widely as possible, by public ad- 
dresses, and personal communication with school officers, teachers, and 
parents, a knowledge of existing defects, and desirable improvements 
in the administration of the school system." Under these provisions 
much has been done towards furnishing the public schools with 
spacious, attractive, and convenient school-houses. Prior to 1844, 
there was not a public school-house in the State, out of Providence, 
which could be pointed to as a model in the essential features of such 
a structure. In one half of the towns, the public schools were taught 
in buildings owned by proprietors, many of which were erected, 
originally, for other purposes, and all of them were unfit for children 
at school ; they "were badly located, small, inconvenient, and dilapi- 
dated. The attention of parents and school officers was early, ear- 
nestly, and perseveringly called to the almost necessary connection 
between a good school-house and a good school, and to the immense 
injury done to the comfort and health of children by the too common 
neglect of ventilation, temperature, and furniture of school-rooms. 
The subject was introduced into every public address, as a preliminary 
step in the work of educational improvement. Six thousand pam- 
phlets, containing a variety of plans of school-houses for large and small 
districts, and for schools of different grades, were scattered over the 
State. Plans and details of construction were gratuitously furnished 
to builders and committees. Efforts were made to get up at least one 
model house in each county, in which the true principles of school 
architecture should be carried out, and could be seen. Men of 
wealth and intelligence in the large districts were seen and inter- 
ested in the erection of new and commodious structures, which should 
be ornamental to their villages, and attractive and comfortable to the 
children. School committees were instructed to withhold the public 

18 



274 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



money from districts whose houses should be considered by them as 
not school-worthy . 

The results have fully justified the practicability of these and 
other efforts — a complete renovation, nay, a revolution, having passed 
over the school-houses of this State. Old, dilapidated, repulsive, 
inconvenient houses having given place to new, neat, attractive and 
commodious structures, in a majority of the districts. Liberal ap- 
propriations have been freely voted ; and men of business and taste 
have accepted the supervision of the expenditure. Rhode Island can 
now boast of more good school-houses, and fewer poor ones, in pro- 
portion to the Avhole number, than any other State — more than one 
hundred and fifty thousand dollars having been voluntarily voted for 
this purpose in less than three years, not including the city of Provi- 
dence. The few poor houses which remain, if they can resist much 
longer the attacks of the elements, cannot stand up against the accu- 
mulating weight of public condemnation. 

In the following pages will be found plans and descriptions of a 
few of the best school-houses, which have been recently erected in 
Rhode Island, for schools of different grades. They are not pre- 
sented as faultless specimens of school-architecture, but as embracing, 
each, some points of excellence, either in style, construction, or ar- 
rangement. 

Although the author of this treatise, as Commissioner of Public 
Schools for Rhode Island, was consulted in almost every instance by 
the local building committee, and was always gratified in having op- 
portunities to furnish plans, or make suggestions — yet he was seldom 
able to persuade the committee, or the carpenters, to carry out his 
plans and suggestions thoroughly. Something would be taken from 
the height, or the length, or the breadth ; — some objections would 
be made to the style of the exterior or the arrangement of the inte- 
rior ; — the plans recommended for securing warmth and ventilation 
were almost invariably modified, and in very many instances entirely 
neglected. He desires, therefore, not to be held responsible for the 
details of any one house, as it now stands — for being thus held re- 
sponsible, he should probably receive credit for improvements which 
others are as much entitled to as himself, and should in more in- 
stances be held accountable for errors of taste, and deficiencies in 
internal arrangements, against which he protested with those having 
charge of the building. But with some reservation, most of the 
school-houses recently erected in Rhode Island can be pointed to 
as embracing many improvements in school architecture. To 
Mr. Thomas A. Teft, of Providence, much credit is due for the 
taste which he has displayed in the designs furnished by him, and 
for the elevations which he drew for plans furnished or suggested 
by the Commissioner. He should not, however, be held responsible 
for the alterations made in his plans by the committees and carpen- 
ters having charge of the erection of the buildings after plans furnished 
by him. 

The following are among the features which the Commissioner has 



PRINCIPLES OF SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 275 

endea\>wed to secure in the best class of school edifices, respecting 
the location, or plan of which he 'was consulted, or called upon 
officially to act : 

1. A location, healthy, accessible from all parts of the district; 
retired from the dust, noise, and danger of the highway ; at- 
tractive, from its choice of sun and shade, and commanding, in one 
or more directions, the cheap, yet priceless educating influences of 
fine scenery. 

2. A site large enough to admit of a yard in front of the building, 
either common to the whole school or appropriated to greensward, 
flowers and shrubbery, and two yards in the rear, one for each sex, 
properly inclosed, and fitted up with rotary swings, and other means 
of recreation and exercise, and with privies, which a civilized people 
never neglect. 

3. Separate entrances to the school-room for each sex ; each en- 
trance distinct from the front door, and fitted up with scraper, mats, 
and old broom for the feet ; with hooks, shelves, &c, for hats, over- 
coats, over-shoes, and umbrellas ; with sink, pump, basin and towels, 
and with brooms and duster, and all the means and appliances 
necessary to secure habits of order, neatness and cleanliness. 

4. School-room, in addition to the space required by aisles and 
the teacher's platform, sufficient to accommodate with a seat and 
desk, not only each scholar in the district who is in the habit of at- 
tending school, but all who may be entitled to attend ; with verge 
enough to receive the children of industrious, thoughtful, and reli- 
gious families, who are sure to be attracted to a district which is 
blessed with a good school-house and a good school. 

5. At least, one spare room for recitation, library, and other uses, 
to every school-room, no matter how small the school may be. 

6. An arrangement of the windows, so as to secure one blank wall, 
and at the same time, the cheerfulness and warmth of the sunlight, at 
all times of the day, with arrangements to modify the same by blinds, 
shutters, or curtains. 

7. Apparatus for warming, by which a large quantity of pure air 
from outside of the building can be moderately heated, and intro- 
duced into the room without passing over a red-hot iron surface, and 
distributed equally to different parts of the room. 

8. A cheap, simple, and efficient mode of ventilation, by which 
the air in every part of a school-room, which is constantly becoming 
vitiated by respiration, combustion, or other causes, may be constantly 
flowing out of the room, and its place filled by an adequate supply of 
fresh air drawn from a pure source, and admitted into the room at 
the right temperature, of the requisite degree of moisture, and without 
any perceptible current. 

9. A desk with at least two feet of top surface, and in no case for 
more than two pupils, inclined towards the front edge one inch in a 
foot, except two to three inches of the most distant portion, which 
should be level, and covered with cloth to prevent noise — fitted with 
an ink-pot (supplied with a lid and a pen-wiper,) and a slate, with a 
pencil-holder and a sponge attached, and supported by end-pieces or 



27& SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

stanchion®, curved so as to be convenient for sweeping, and to admit of 
easy access to the seat — these of varying heights for small and 
large pupils, the front edge of each desk being from seven to nine- 
inches (seven for the lowest and nine for the highest,) higher than 
the front edge of the seat or chair attached. 

10. A chair or bench for each pupil, and in no ease for more than 
two, unless separated by an aisle,, with a seat hollowed like an ordi- 
nary chair, and varying in height from ten to seventeen inches from 
the outer edge to the floor, so that each pupil, when properly seated, 
can rest his feet on the floor without the muscles of the thigh press- 
ing hard upon the front edge of the seat, and with a support for the 
muscles of the back, rising above the shoulder-blades. 

11. An arrangement of the seats and desks, so as to allow of an 
aisle or free passage of at least two feet around the room, and be- 
tween each range of seats for two scholars, and so as to bring each 
scholar under the supervision of the teacher. 

12. Arrangements for the teacher, such as a separate closet for 
his overcoat, &c. r a desk for his papers-, a library of books of reference,, 
maps, apparatus, and all such instrumentalities by which his capa- 
cities for instruction may be made in the highest degree useful. 

13. Accommodations for a school library for consultation and cir- 
culation among the pupils, both at school and as a means of carrying 
on the work of self-education at their homes,, in the field, or the work- 
shop, after they have left school. 

14. A design in good taste and fit proportion, in place of the 
wretched perversions of architecture, which almost universally char- 
acterize the district school-houses of New England. 

15. While making suitable accommodation for the school, it will be 
a wise, and, all things considered, an economical investment, on the 
part of many districts, to provide apartments in the same building, or 
In its neighborhood, for the teacher and his family. This arrangement 
will give character and permanence to the office of teaching, and at 
the same time secure better supervision for the school-house and 
premises, and more attention to the manners of the pupils out of 
school. Provision for the residence of the teacher, and not un- 
frequently a garden for his cultivation, is made in connection with the 
parochial schools in Scotland, and with the first class of public schools 
in Germany. 

1 6. Whenever practicable, the privies should be disconnected from 
the play-ground, and be approached from a covered walk. Perfect 
seclusion, neatness and propriety should be strictly observed in re- 
lation to them. 

17. A shed, or covered walk, or the basement story paved under 
feet, and open for free circulation of air for the boys, and an upper 
room with the floor deafened and properly supported for calisthenic 
exercises for the girls, is a desirable appendage to every school. 

As many of the houses described are provided with very inad- 
equate means of warming and ventilation, the following summary 
of the principles, which ought to be regarded in all arrangements for 



PRINCIPLES OF VENTILATION. ~277 

these objects, Is given as the result of much observation, reflection, 
and experience. 

1.- The location of the school-house must be healthy, and all 
•causes, — such as defective drains, stagnant water, decaying animal or 
vegetable substances, and manufactures, whose operations evolve 
offensive and deleterious gases, — calculated to vitiate the external at- 
mosphere, from which the air of the school-room is supplied, must 
be removed or obviated. 

2. The means provided for ventilation must be sufficient to secure 
the object, independent of doors and windows, and other lateral 
openings, which are intended primarily for the admission of light, 
passage to and from the apartment, and similar purposes. Any de- 
pendence on the opening of doors and windows, except in summer, 
will subject the occupants of the room near such .points to currents 
of cold air when the pores of the skin are open, and when such ex- 
treme and rapid changes of temperature are particularly disagreeable 
and dangerous. 

3. Any openings in the ceiling for the discharge of vitiated air into 
the attic, and hence to the exterior of the building, or by flues carried 
up in the wall, no matter how constructed or where placed, cannot 
be depended on for purposes of ventilation, unless systematic ar- 
rangements are adopted to effect, In concert with such openings, the 
introduction and diffusion of a constant and abundant supply of pure 
air, in the right condition as to temperature and moisture. 

4. All stoves, or other heating apparatus, standing in the apartment 
.to be wanned, and heating only the atmosphere of that apartment, 
which is constantly becoming more and more vitiated by respiration 
and other causes, are radically defective, and should be altogether, 
without delay, and forever discarded. 

5. Any apparatus for warming pure air, before it is introduced into 
the school-room, in which the heating surface becomes red-hot, or 
the air is warmed above the temperature of boiling water, is incon- 
sistent with true ventilation. 

6. To effect the combined objects of warming and ventilation, a 
large quantity of moderately heated air should be introduced in such 
a manner as to reach every portion of the room, and 'be passed off by 
appropriate openings and flues, as fast as its oxygen is exhausted, 
and it becomes vitiated by carbonic acid gas, and other noxious 
qualities. 

7. The size and number of the admission flues or openings will 
depend on the size of the school-room, and the number of persons 
occupying the same ■; but they should have a capacity to supply every 
person in' the room with at least five cubic feet of air per minute* 
Warm air can be introduced at a high as well as a low point from 
the floor, provided there is an exhaustive power in the discharging 
flues sufficient to secure a powerful ascending current of vitiated air 
from openings near the floor. 

8 Openings into flues for the discharge of vitiated air, should be 
made at such points in the room, and at such distances from the 
©penings fox the admission oi pure warm air, that a portion of the 



078 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

warm air will traverse every part of tire room, and impart as much 
warmth as possible, before it becomes vitiated and escapes from the 
apartment. 

These openings can be made near the floor, at points most distant 
from the admission flues, provided there is a fire draught, or other 
power operating in the discharging flues, sufficient to overcome the 
natural tendency of the warm air in the room to ascend to the ceiling ; 
otherwise they should be inserted in or near the ceiling. 

Openings at the floor are recommended, not because carbonic acid 
gas, being heavier than the other elements of atmospheric air, settles 
to the floor, (because, owing to the law of the diffusion of gazes 
among each other, carbonic acid gas will be found equally diffused 
through the room,) but because, when it can be drawn off at the 
floor, it will carry along with it the cold air which is admitted by 
open doors, and at cracks and crevices, and also the offensive gases 
sometimes found in school-rooms. 

9. All openings, both for the admission and discharge of air, should 
be fitted with valves and registers, to regulate the quantity of air to 
pass through them. The quantity of air to be admitted should be 
regulated before it passes over the heating surface ; otherwise, being 
confined in the air chamber and tubes, the excessive heat will cause 
much injury to the pipes and the woodwork adjoining. 

10. All flues for ventilation, not intended to act in concert with 
some motive power, such as a fan, a pump, the mechanism of a clock, 
a fire-draught, a jet of steam, &c, but depending solely on the spon- 
taneous upward movement of the column of warm air within them, 
should be made large, (of a capacity equal to at least 18 inches in 
diameter,) tight, (except the openings at the top and bottom of the 
room ;) smooth, (if made of boards, the boards should be seasoned, 
matched, and planed ; if made of bricks, the flue should be round, 
and finished smooth,) and carried up on the inside of the room, or in 
the inner wall, with as few angles and deviations from a direct 
ascent as possible, above the highest point of the roof. 

1 1 . All flues for the discharge of vitiated air, even when properly 
constructed and placed, and even when acting in concert with a cur- 
rent of warm air flowing into the room, should be supplied with some 
simple, reliable exhaustive power, which can be applied at all sea- 
sons of the year, and with a force varying with the demands of the 
season, and the condition of the air in the apartment. 

12. The most simple, economical, and reliable motive power 
available in most school-houses is heat, or the same process by 
which the natural upward movements of air are induced and sus- 
tained. Heat can be applied to the column of air in a ventilating flue, 

1. By carrying up the ventilating flue close beside, or even within 
the smoke flue, which is used in connection with the heating appa- 
ratus. 

2. By carrying up the smoke-pipe within the ventilating flue, 
either the whole length, or in the upper portion only. In a small 
school-room, the heat from the smoke-pipe carried up for a few feet 
only in the ventilating flue before it projects above the roof s is a 



PRINCIPLES OF VENTILATION. 279 

motive power sufficient to sustain a constant draught of cool and 
vitiated air, into an opening near the door. 

3. -By kindling a fire at the bottom, or other convenient point in 
the ventilating flue. 

If the same flue is used for smoke from the fire, and vitiated air 
from the apartment, some simple self-acting valve or damper should 
be applied to the opening for the escape of the vitiated air, which 
shall close at the slightest pressure from the inside of the flue, and 
thus prevent any reverse current, or down draught, earrying smoke and 
soot into the apartment. 

4. By discharging a jet of steam, or a portion of warm air from the 
furnace, or other warming apparatus, directly into the ventilating flue. 

Any application of heat by which the temperature of the air in the 
ventilating flue can be raised above the temperature of the apartment 
to be ventilated, will' cause a flow of air from the apartment to sus- 
tain the combustion, (if there is a fire in the flue,) and to supply the 
partial vacuum in the flue, which is caused by the rarefaction of the 
air in the same. 

In all school buildings, when several apartments are to be venti- 
lated, the most effectual, and, all things considered, the most econom- 
ical, mode of securing a motive power, is to construct an upright 
brick shaft or flue, and in that to build a fire, or carry up the smoke- 
pipe of the stove, furnace, or other warming apparatus ; and then to 
discharge the ventilating flues from the top or bottom of each apart- 
ment, into this upright shaft. The fire draught, will create a partial 
vacuum in this shaft, to fill which, a draught will be established upon 
every room with which it is connected by lateral flues. Whenever 
a shaft of this kind is resorted to, the flues for ventilation may be 
lateral, and the openings into them may be inserted near the floor. 

13. With a flue properly constructed, so as to facilitate the spon- 
taneous upward movement of the warm air within it, and so placed 
that the air is not exposed to the chilling influence of external cold, 
a turncap, constructed after the plan of Emerson's Ejector, or Mott's 
Exhausting Cowl, will assist the ventilation, and especially when 
there are any currents in the atmosphere. But such caps are not 
sufficient to overcome any considerable defects in the construction of 
the ventilating flues, even when there is much wind. 

14. The warming and ventilation of a school-room will be facili- 
tated by appbying a double sash to all windows having a northern 
and eastern exposure. 

15. In every furnaee, and on every stove, a capacious vessel well 
supplied with fresh water, and protected from the dust, should be 
placed. 

16. Every school-room should be furnished with two thermometers 
placed on opposite sides in the room, and the temperature in the 
winter should not be allowed to attain beyond 68° Fahrenheit at a 
level of four feet from the floor, or 70° at the height of six feet. 

17. The necessity for ventilation in an occupied apartment is not 
obviated by merely reducing the atmosphere to a low temperature. 



2gQ SCHOOL ARCHITECTUKE. 



Plans of School-Houses with one School-room. 

The largest number of school-houses which are erected with but 
one school-room, are intended for District, or for Primary Schools. 

District School. 

...By a District School, in this connection, is understood a public 
school open to all the children of the district, of both sexes, and of 
the school age recognized by the practice of the district, or the regu- 
lations of the school committee of the town to which such district 
belongs. It is an unclassified school] and is taught in one apartment, 
by one teacher, usually without any assistance even from older pupils 
of the school. (it varies in the character of its scholars, and its 
methods of instruction, from summer to winter, and from winter to 
summer. In summer, the younger children and classes in the ele- 
mentary studies predominate, and in the winter the older pupils, and 
classes in the more advanced studies, whilst some of both extremes, 
as to age and studies, are to be found in both the winter and summer 
session of the district schoolj This variety of ages and studies, and 
consequent variety of classes, increased by the irregularity of at- 
tendance, is not only a serious hinderanceto the proper arrangement, 
instruction and government of the school, but presents almost insu- 
perable obstacles to the appropriate construction and furniture of the 
school-house, which is too often erected on the smallest possible 
scale of size and expense. A vast amount of physical suffering and 
discomfort to the pupils is the necessary result of crowding the older 
and younger pupils into a small apartment, without seats and furniture 
appropriate to either, and especially when no precaution has been 
taken to adapt the supply and arrangements of seats and desks ac- 
cording to the varying circumstances of the same school in winter 
and summer. In every district, or unclassified school, the school- 
room should be fitted up with seats and desks for the older and 
younger pupils, sufficient to accommodate the maximum attendance of 
each class of scholars at any season of the year. And if this cannot 
be effected, and only a sufficient number of seats can be secured to 
accommodate the highest number of both sexes in attendance at any 
one time, then in winter the seats and desks for the smaller children., 
should be removed to the attic, and their place supplied by additional 
seats and desks for the older pupils ; and in summer this arrange- 
ment should be reversed. 



Primary Schools. 

By a Primary School, in our American School Systems, is under- 
stood, not generally an Elementary School, embracing a course of 
instruction for the great mass of the children of the community 



PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 



281 



under fourteen years of age— rbut specifically, that class or grade of 
schools which receive only the youngest pupils, and those least 
advanced in their studies. 

Any scheme of school organization will be imperfect which does 
not include special arrangements for the systematic training and in- 
struction of very young children, especially in all cities, manufactur- 
ing villages, and large neighborhoods. [Among the population of 
such places, many parents are sure to be found, who, for want of 
intelligence or leisure, of constancy and patience, are unfitted to 
watch the first blossoming of the souls of their children, and to train 
them to good physical habits, virtuous impulses, and quick and accu- 
rate observations ; to cleanliness, obedience, openness, mutual kind- 
liness, piety, and all the virtues which wise and far-seeing parents 
desire for their offspring. The general result of the home training 
of the children of such parents, is .the neglect of all moral culture 
when such culture is most valuable A an d the acquisition of manners, 
personal habits, and language, which the best school training at a 
later period of life can with difficulty correct or eradicate. [To meet 
the wants of this class of children, Halls of Refuge and Infant 
Schools were originally instituted by Oberlin, Owen, and Wilderspin, 
and now constitute under these names, or the names of Primary 
Schools, or Primary Departments, a most important branch of ele- 
mentary education, whether sustained by individual charity, or as 
part of the organization of public instruction. 

No one at all acquainted with the history of education in this | 
country, can doubt that the establishment of the Primary School for 
children under six years of age, in Boston, in 1818, as a distinct 
grade ol schools, with the modifications which it has since re- 
ceived there, and elsewhere, from the principles and methods of 
the Infant School system, has led to most important improvements in 
the quality and quantity of instruction in our public schools, and the 
sooner a Primary School properly organized, furnished and man- 
aged, can be established in every large neighborhood, and especially 
in the " infected districts" of cities and manufacturing villages, the 
more rapid and more thorough will be the progress of education^ 
Its doors should stand wide open to receive such children as are; 
abandoned by orphanage, or, worse than orphanage, by parental! 
neglect and example, to idle, vicious, and pilfering habits, before the j 
corruptions incident to their situation have struck deep into their 
moral nature, and before they have' fallen under the alluring and j 
training influences and instruction of bad boys who infest such 
regions, polluting the atmosphere by their profane and vulgar speech, 
and participating in every street brawl and low-bred riot, j From all 
such influences, the earlier the children of the poor and the ignorant 
are withdrawn, and placed under the care and instruction of an 
Infant~sOr Primary School, the better it will be for them and for 
society \ But in every localitylthe Primary School should be estab- 
lished, and brought as near as possible to the homes of the children, 
in order to secure their early and regular attendance, and to relieve 
She anxiety of parents for their safety on their way to and from 



282 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



school. The peculiarities of play-ground, school-room, and teachers 
required for this class of schools, should be carefully studied, and 
promptly and liberally provided. The school-room should be light, 
cheerful, and large enough for the evolutions of large classes, — fur- 
nished with appropriate seats, furniture, apparatus, and means of 
visible illustration, and having a retired, dry, and airy play-ground, 
with a shelter to resort to in inclement weather, and with flower 
borders, shrubbery, and shade-trees, which they should be taught to 
love and respect. The play-ground is as essential as the school- 
room for a Primary School, and is indeed the uncovered school- 
room of physical and moral education, and the place where the 
manners and personal habits of children can be better trained than 
elsewhere. With them, the hours of play and study, of confinement 
and recreation, must alternate more frequently than with older pupils. 

To teach these schools properly, to regulate the hours of play and 
study so as to give variety, vivacity, and interest to all of the exer- 
cises, without over-exciting the nervous system, or overtasking any 
faculty of mind or body, — to train boys and girls to mild dispositions, 
graceful and respectful manners, and unquestioning obedience, — to 
preserve and quicken a tenderness and sensibility of conscience as the 
instinctive monitor of the approach of wrong, — to cultivate the senses 
to habits of quick and accurate observation and discrimination, — to 
prevent the formation of artificial and sing-song tones, — to teach the 
use of the voice, and of simple, ready, and correct language, and to 
begin in this way, and by appropriate exercises in drawing, calcu- 
lation, and lessons on the properties and classification of objects, the 
cultivation of the intellectual faculties, — to do all these things and 
more, require in the teacher a rare union of qualities, seldom found 
in one in a hundred of the male sex, and to be looked for with the 
greatest chance of success among females, " in whose own hearts, 
love, hope, and patience have first kept school," and whose laps 
seem always full of the blossoms of knowledge, to be showered on 
the heads and hearts of infancy and childhood. In the right educa- 
tion of early childhood, must we look for a corrective of the evils of 
society in our large cities and manufacturing villages, and for the 
beginning of a better and higher civilization than has yet blessed 
our world. The earlier we can establish, in every populous district, 
primary schools, under female teachers, whose hearts are made 
strong by deep religious principle, — who have faith in the power of 
Christian love steadily exerted to fashion anew the bad manners, and 
soften the harsh and self-willed perverseness of neglected children, — 
with patience to begin every morning, with but little, if any, percep- 
tible advance beyond where they began the previous morning, — with 
prompt and kind sympathies, and ready skill in music, drawing, and 
oral methods, the better it will be for the cause of education, and for 
every other good cause. 

The following plan of a Play Ground for an Infant or Primary 
School is copied from " Wilder spin's Early Education." We should 
prefer to see an accomplished female teacher presiding over the 
scene. 



284 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Primary School in Westerly, R. I. 




The above cut presents a sufficiently correct view of a Primary School- 
house erected in Westerly in 1846, after designs by Mr. Teft, of Provi- 
dence, except that there are two porches or entrances in front, instead of 
one, as shown in the above view. The porch opens into a spacious entry 
furnished with hooks and shelves for hats, bonnets, &c, and a sink, with 
water-pail, wash-bowls. &c. The school-room accommodates sixty pupils, 
with a desk and seat, each desk accommodating two scholars. In the 
original plan there were to be thirty chairs, similar to the Boston Primary 
School Chair, but the committee preferred that every child should have 
a desk, in which a slate should be inserted. 

There is a blackboard, or black surface in front of the scholars, extend- 
ing between the two entrance doors, and across the entire end in the rear. 
Below the blackboard, at the rear end of the school-room, there is a leaf 
in which slates are inserted, where the young children can copy, or other- 
wise amuse themselves, from lessons drawn by the teacher on the black- 
board above. 

The play-ground attached is spacious, and the children can there amuse 
and recreate themselves in the open air, without exposure to accidents 
from passing vehicles,. &c. 

A second primary school-house on the same plan has been erected in 
another part of the village. 

With very slight modifications, these houses can be pointed to as safe 
models for Primary school-houses. 

These schools receive the small children, while the older attend in an 
intermediate department and in the High School situated in the centre ot 
the village. These schools, as at present organized and managed, meet 
the educational wants of the village. 



VILLAGE SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



285 



Plan of V illage School-house in Allendale, N. Providence, R. 1. 




- -V/^-^^v^ ^2^5 



m 



The above is a view of the Village school-house erected by Z. Allen. 
Esq., at Allendale, North Providence, after designs by T. A. Teft, or 
Providence. It is situated in a beautiful grove, on a little knoll which 
admits of a basement room in the rear, originally designed for a library 
and reading room for the village, but now occupied by a Primary school. 
It is built of stone in a style very common in structures of this kind in 
England. The main room, which is intended for a school-room, although 
for the present used for lectures, and religious exercises, is very appropri- 
ately finished— the walls being made to represent stone work of a very 
subdued neutral tint, and the ceiling, supported by wooden tracery, is fin- 
ished partially in the roof, leaving the necessary open space above to pro- 
tect the room from the effects of excessive heat and cold. The ceiling, 
wainscoting, seats, desks and doors, are grained in imitation of oak. It is 
thoroughly ventilated and warmed by air heated in a chamber below. 

By the above pleasing specimen of the Elizabethan style, and other 
varieties not commonly introduced into structures of this kind, Mr. Teft 
has broken, in Rhode Island at least, the dull monotony of wretched per- 
versions of architecture which characterize the village and country school- 
houses of New England. We shall present in another place a kw speci- 
mens of the Elizabethan style, in front and side elevations, for large and 
small schools, which can be easily modified to suit the wants of particular 
localities. 

In many neighborhoods it is a matter of economy to build of stone, and 
where this is the case, the style of architecture should be adapted to the 
material. 



286 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan of District School-House in Glocester, R. I. 




The above cut represents the front elevation of a new school-house erected 
in District No. 13, in the town of Glocester, Rhode Island, which, for location, 
neatness, and proportion in the external appearance, mode of seating, warm- 
ing and ventilation, can be consulted as a safe model for small agricultural 
districts. The cost of the building and furniture was $600. The style and 
arrangement of the seats and desks is indicated in Figures 3 and 4 The end 
pieces are of cast iron, and so shaped, as to facilitate the sweeping of the room, 
and the pupils getting in and out of their seats, and at the same time are firm- 
ly attached to the floor by screws. This building is 30 feet by 20 feet. 

The room is heated by Mott's Ventilating School Stove, designed both for wood 
and hard coal. Fresh air is introduced from outside of the building by a flue 
beneath the floor, and is warmed by passing along the heated surfaces of the 
stove as indicated in the following section. 




A. A chamber, for coal or 
wood. 

B. A revolving grate with a cam 
motion, by which the ashes 
are easily detached and made 
to drop into the ash-pit be- 
low. 

C. Ash-pit, by which also the 
draught can be regulated, and 
the stove made an air-tight. 

D. Duct, or flue under the floor, 
by which fresh air from with- 
out is admitted under and 
around the stove, and circu- 
lates in the direction indi- 
cated by the arrows. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN GLOCESTER. 



287 



The smoke-pipe is carried in the usual way, high enough to prevent any 
injurious radiation of heat upon the heads of the pupils below, to the centre of 
the opposite end of the room, where, after passing through the ceiling, it enters 
the ventilating flue, which, commencing at the floor, is carried up through the 
attic and out above the roof, as shown in Figures 3 and 4. The heat of the 
smoke-pipe produces a lively upward current of the air in the upper portion 
of the ventilating flue, sufficient to draw off the lower stratum of air near the 
floor, and at the same time draw down, and diffuse equally through the room, 
the fresh air which is introduced and warmed by the stove at the opposite end. 




A — Front entrance. 

E — Girls' Entrance and lobby. 

C — Boys' do. do. 

D — Teachers' platform. 

E — Seat and desk, for the pupils. 

S — Mott's ventilating school stove. 

V — Flue for ventilation. 



F — Seats for classes at recitation. 

d — Teacher's desk. 

e — Library of reference in front of 
teacher's desk. 

c — Closets for school library and ap- 
paratus. 

f — Fence dividing back yard. 




288 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan of District School-House in Barrington, R. I. 




The above cut represents in perspective the new school-house in District No. 
2, in the town of Barrington, Rhode Island — the most attractive, convenient, 
and complete structure of the kind in any agricultural district in the State — and, 
it is believed, in New England. 

The house stands back from the highway in a lot, of an acre in extent, and 
commands an extensive view up and down Narraganset Bay, and of the rich 
cultivated fields for miles in every other direction. 

The building is 49 feet long by 25 wide, and 12 feet high in the clear, and 
is built after working plans drawn by Mr. Teft, of Providence. 

The school-room is calculated to accommodate 64 pupils, with seats and 
desks each for two pupils, similar to the folowing cut, and arranged as in 
Figure 3. 

The end-piece, or supports, both of the desk and seat, are of cast-iron, and 
the wood-work is attached by screws. They are made of eight sizes, giving a 
seat from ten inches to seventeen, and a desk at the edge next to the scholar 
from seventeen to twenty-six inches from the floor. 




Each pupil, when properly seated, can rest his feet on the floor without the 
muscle of the thigh pressing hard upon the front edge of the seat, and with a 
support for the muscles of the back. 



DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN BARRINGTON. 



289 



The yards and entrance for the boys and girls are entirely separate, and each 
is appropriately fitted up with scraper, mats, broom, water-pails, sink, hooks 
and shelves. 



"~ ■ - »»»-^ WSZZZ. W222MZZZH 1 ......--. -.,■ ■ , v,;M//.>„w/,/,))mimm//i/>, 







L (S 



A — Front entrance. 

B — Girls' entrance and lobby, fitted up with mats, scrapers, hooks, shelves. 

C — Boys' entrance. 

D — Teacher's platform. 

S — Boston Ventilating Stove. 

V — Flue for ventilation surmounted, by Emerson's Ejector. 

L — Cases for library. 

E — Closets for apparatus, &c. 

The school is well supplied with blackboards, maps, globes, and diagrams, 
and such other instrumentalities as are necessary and useful in the studies 
usually taught in a district school. 

There is abundance of unoccupied space around the sides of the room and 
between the ranges of desks 10 allow of the free movements of the teaeher and 
of the pupils, in passing to and from their seats. 

There is also a district library of about 600 volumes, containing a large 
number of books of reference, such as Dictionaries, Encyclopedia, and a va- 
riety of the best text books in the several studies of the school, to enable the 
teacher to extend his knowledge, and illustrate his recitations by additional 
information. 

There are about one hundred volumes selected with reference to the youngest 
class of children, and about 400 volumes in the different departments of useful 
knowledge, calculated for circulation among the older pupils, in the families 
of the district generally. 

The maps, apparatus and library were purchased by the Commissioner or 
Public Schools at an expense of $250, which was contributed by five or six 
individuals. The building, furniture and land, cost about $1200. 

The school-room is warmed and ventilated under the direction of Mr.Gard- 
ner Chilson, Boston, by one of the Boston Ventilating Stoves, and by a flue- 
constructed similar to those recently introduced into the Boston Public School 
houses by Dr. Henry G. Clark, and surmounted by Emerson's Ejector. 

A cut and description of this stove, and of MoWs Ventilating Stove for burn- 
ing wood as well as coal, is given on the next page. 

The flue for ventilation is carried up in the partition wall, and is constructed. 
©f well seasoned boards, planed smooth on the inside. 

19 



290 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Mott's Ventilating School-Stove, for burning wood or coal. 

Patented and Manufactured by J. L. Mott, 264 Water-street, N. Y. 

By this stove the room is warmed by conducting a supply of moderately 
heated pure air from without, as well as by direct radiation from the upper por- 
tion of the stove. 

■ B IBB 




IIS 

■ i'ul ':■("■;■ •'■" ^ ; , ■ -,,, ■■■■-. ^ ■ -.-j-ri,. -. . .. :i-:.- . ■■: :■■; li 1 felllBHIi 

■ :" i::,:;' 11 -"': V;/^'-r'!!!t| i ; ' 1 V^ ,l i!|.;:!^sI'.;3l; , l i ; ::. ,| r! 





A. Air Chamber, lor coal or 

wood. 

B. A revolving grate with a 

cam process, by which the 
ashes are easily detached 
and made to drop into the 
ash-pit below. 

C. Ash-Pit, by which also the 

draft can be regulated, and 
the stove made an air-tight. 

D. Duct, or flue under the floor, 

by which fresh air from 
without is admitted under 
and around the stove, and 
circulates in the direction 
indicated by the arrows. 



This, and all stoves designed to promote ventilation by introducing fresh air 
from without, will work satisfactorily only where a flue properly constructed 
is provided to carry off the air which has become impure from respiration. 



BOSTON SCHOOL VENTILATING STOVE. 



291 



Since the first edition of this volume was issued, the stove and furnace 
described in the Report on the Boston Mode of Ventilation, on pages 
154, 155, have been somewhat modified by the original patentees, so as 
to increase the radiating surface, and thereby secure greater economy in 
the consumption of the fuel. We therefore insert the new drawings, with 
descriptions abridged from the printed Circulars of Mr. Chilson, 

The Boston Ventilating Stove and Portable Ventilating 

Furnace. 

Patented March 10th, 1848, by Henry G. Clark, M. £>., and manufactured by 

Gardner Chilson, Boston. 

The Boston Ventilating Stove is composed of two cylinders, the inner(Fig. 1,) 
containing a fire chamber, which is lined with soapstone or fire brick, and is 
fitted with additional smoke-pipes to increase the radiating surface, while the 
outer (Fig. 2,) constitutes a chamber for wanning the air, which is introduced 
into it beneath the inner cylinder by a flue from out of doors, and flows out at 
the top, to which there is a movable cap, or distributor attached, by which the 
opening is enlarged or diminished, and .thus the supply and temperature of the 
air admitted can be .easily regulated. 

Fig. 1 Fig. 2. 




The dark arrows show the course of the air in its passage from the opening 
underneath the stove, through the air-chamber, into the apartment. The light 
arrows show the circulation of the smoke through the various radiating pipes. 

This stove is made of three sizes, varying in price from twenty-five to forty 
dollars. It received a silver medal at the Fifth Exhibition of the Massachusetts 
Charitable Mechanic Association, and has been introduced with signal success 
into many school-houses in Boston, Charlestown, and other places. 

This stove can be advantageously used as a hall stove and as a portable fur- 
nace, under circumstances which will not admit of a brick inclosure. 



292 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



More than sixty District school-houses have been erected in Rhode Island 
on the same general plan as that presented in the cuts of the Barrington and 
Glocester school-house, with some slight variations required by the nature of 
the site, or the peculiar views of the majority of the district, or of the building 
committee, in each case. The following plans present some of these modifi- 
cations. The first is 34 ft. by 25, and the second, 36 ft. by 27. 

Plan of School-House in District No. 10, Cranston. 




A — Front entrance. 
B — Girls' entrance. 
C — Boys' do. 



D — Teacher's platform. 
E — Library. 

S — Worcester Ventilat- 
ing Stove. 



V — Flue for ventilation. 
F — Seat and desk with 

iron ends. 
s — Cold air duct. 



////////////////,/M/M///// / ///////////, x \;;/MM;/vss//>///,ss////,///v//,/r/,/di\ V/////M//f//iMM///M,'M/M/M//M 



































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W/MtefflMWM//W/>M l ///t- 



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Plan of School-House at Clayville, Scituate. 



PLAN OF DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE. 293 

The following plan, although not followed throughout in any school-house in 
Rhode Island, presents substantially the internal arrangement which has been 
adopted in several instances, as in the school-house at Peacedale, in South 
Kingston, at Carolina Mills in Richmond, and in the lower room of the acad- 
emy in Kingston. 








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°r 




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n° 









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The following cut, which is copied from a plan of a district school-house 
recommended by Dr. Lord, Superintendent of the common schools of Columbus, 
Ohio, presents the plan of several district and village school-houses erected 
in Rhode Island. The house is 26 feet by 36 feet on the ground. 



















H 


C5 






A — Entry for girls, 8 feet square. 
C — do. for boys, do. do. 

B — Library and apparatus room. 
E— Recitation seats. 
D — Teacher's platform. 



H G — Seat and desk for two pupils, 

4 feet long. 
F — Aisles, 2 feet wide. 
I — do. 18 inches wide. 



294 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Plan of School-House in Centreville, Warwick, R. I. 

The following plan presents a mode ©£ seating a District School-House sins 
ilar to that adopted in several public school-houses in the city of New York. 



_ 



Qp 



on 

o 
b 

b 
o 
o 

o 



Uo 



- : E 



l_ — : -— ~l — -■:": . 



sESa 



-< ■'■■■■■".:■ ' ■--- > 



vJi,w,Bmam. 



o 
o 

A 

o 
o 



The building is 50 feet long (beside'the porch 5^ feet in front) by 30 feet wide 
A — Porch. |R — Recitation-room for assistant. 

B — Girls'' entrance and lobby. S— Stove: 

C— Boys' do. T— Smoke flue. 

D — Teacher's platform. V — Flue for ventilator. 

E — Mott r s school desk and chair. 

The above mode of seating has been adopted in other districts, and in one in- 
stance, with the desks attached at one end to the wall, as in the following plan 
recommended by Hon. Ira Mayhew. There are serious objections to this ar- 
rangement of the seats and desk. 




D, entrance and inner doors. W, windows. E, entries, lighted over doors, 
one for boys and the other for girls. A, teacher's platform. B, blackboard r 
reaching entirely across the end of the house. T, teacher's desk. H, desks 11 
feet long, except the two next the entrance doors. C, Mott : s patent cast-iron 
chairs. S stove. O, an air tube under the floor, through which pure air from 
without is introduced beneath the stove, L, shelves for library, apparatus, etc. 



union schools. 295 

Plans of School-Houses for. Union Schools. 

Before describing a few of the best school-houses which have 
been recently erected in the large villages of Rhode Island, for two 
or more schools of different grades in the same building, a brief con- 
sideration of the importance of classification, or gradation, as ap- 
plied to the schools of a district, or town, cannot be deemed 
irrelevant. 

To enable children to derive the highest degree of benefit from 
their attendance at school, they should go through a regular course 
of training in a succession of classes, and schools arranged according 
to similarity of age, standing, and attainments, under teachers pos- 
sessing the qualifications best adapted to each grade of school. The 
practice has been almost universal in New England, and in other 
states where the organization of the schools is based upon the 
division of the territory into school districts, to provide but one 
school for as many children of both sexes, and of all ages from four 
to sixteen years, as can be gathered in from certain territorial limits, 
into one apartment, under one teacher ; a female teacher in summer, 
and a male teacher in winter. The disadvantages of this practice, 
both to pupils and teachers, are great and manifold. 

There is a large amount of physical suffering and discomfort, as 
well as great hinderances in the proper arrangement of scholars and 
classes, caused by crowding the older and younger pupils into the 
same school-room, without seats and furniture appropriate to either ; 
and the greatest amount of suffering and discomfort falls upon the 
young, who are least able to bear it, and who, in consequence, ac- 
quire a distaste to study and the school-room. 

The work of education going on in such schools, cannot be 
appropriate and progressive. There cannot, be a regular course of 
discipline and instruction, adapted to the age and proficiency of 
pupils — a series of processes, each adapted to certain periods in the 
development of the mind and character, the first intended to be fol- 
lowed by a second, and the second by a third, — the latter always 
depending on the earlier, and all intended to be conducted on the 
same general principles, and by methods varying with the work to 
be done, and the progress already made. 

With the older and younger pupils in the same room, there cannot 
be a system of discipline which shall be equally well adapted to both 
classes. If it secures the cheerful obedience and subordination of 
the older, it will press with unwise severity upon the younger 
pupils. If it be adapted to the physical wants, and peculiar tem- 
peraments of the young, it will endanger the good order and habits 
of study of the more advanced pupils, by the frequent change of 
posture and position, and other indulgences which it permits and 
requires of the former. 

With studies ranging from the alphabet and the simplest rudiments 
of knowledge, to the higher branches of an English education, a 
variety of methods of instruction and illustration are called for, 
which are seldom found together, or in an equal degree, in the same 



295 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

teacher, and which, can never be pursued with equal success in the 
same school-room. The elementary principles of knowledge, to be 
made intelligible and interesting to the young, must be presented by 
a large use of the oral and simultaneous methods. The higher 
branches, especially all mathematical subjects, require patient ap- 
plication and habits of abstraction, on the part of the older pupils, 
which can with difficulty, if at all, be attained by many pupils, amid 
a multiplicity of distracting exercises, movements and sounds. The 
recitations of this class of pupils, to be profitable and satisfactory, 
must be conducted in a manner which requires time, discussion 
and explanation, and the undivided attention both of pupils and 
teachers. 

From the number of class and individual recitations, to be attended 
to during each half day, these exercises are brief, hurried, and of 
little practical value. They consist, for the most part, of senseless 
repetitions of the words of a book. Instead of being the time and 
place where the real business of teaching is done, where the 
ploughshare of interrogation is driven down into the acquirements of 
each pupil, and his ability to comprehend clearly, remember accu- 
rately, discriminate wisely, and reason closely, is cultivated and 
tested, — where the difficult principles of each lesson are developed 
and illustrated, and additional information imparted, and the mind of 
the teacher brought in direct contact with the mind of each pupil, to 
arouse, interest, and direct its opening powers — instead of all this 
and more, the brief period passed in recitation, consists, on the part 
of the teacher, of hearing each individual and class in regular order, 
and quick succession, repeat words from a book ; and on the part of 
the pupils, of saying their lessons, as the operation is significantly 
described by most teachers, when they summon the class to the 
stand. In the mean time the order of the school must be maintained, 
and the general business must be going forward. Little children 
without any authorized employment for their eyes and hands, and 
ever active curiosity, must be made to sit still, while every muscle is 
aching from suppressed activity ; pens must be mended, copies set, 
arithmetical difficulties solved, excuses for tardiness or absence re- 
ceived, questions answered, whisperings allowed or suppressed, and 
more or less of extempore discipline administered. Were it not a 
most ruinous waste of precious time, — did it not involve the deaden- 
ing, crushing, distorting, dwarfing of immortal faculties and noble 
sensibilities, — were it not an utter perversion of the noble objects 
for which schools are instituted, it would be difficult to conceive of 
a more diverting farce than an ordinary session of a large public 
school, whose chaotic and discordant elements have not been reduced 
to system by a proper classification. The teacher, at least the con- 
scientious teacher, thinks it any thing but a farce to him. Com- 
pelled to hurry from one study to another, the most diverse, — from 
one class to another, requiring a knowledge of methods altogether 
distinct, — from one recitation to another, equally brief and unsatis- 
factory, one requiring a liveliness of manner, which he does not feel 
and cannot assume, and the other closeness of attention and abstrac- 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 297 

tion of thought, which he cannot give amid the multiplicity and 
variety of cares, — from one case of discipline to another, pressing on 
him at the same time, — he goes through the same circuit day after 
day, with a dizzy brain and aching heart, and brings his school to a 
close with a feeling, that with all his diligence and fidelity, he has 
accomplished but little good. 

But great as are the evils of a want of proper classification of 
schools, arising from the causes already specified, these evils are 
aggravated by the almost universal practice of employing one 
teacher in summer, and another in winter, and different teachers 
each successive summer and winter. Whatever progress one 
teacher may make in bringing order out of the chaotic elements of a 
large public school, is arrested by the termination of his school 
term. His experience is not available to his successor, who does 
not come into the school until after an interval of weeks or months, 
and in the mean time the former teacher has left the town or state. 
The new teacher is a stranger to the children and their parents, is 
unacquainted with the system pursued by his predecessor, and has 
himself but little or no experience in the business ; in consequence, 
chaos comes back again, and the confusion is still worse confounded 
by the introduction of new books, for every teacher prefers to teach 
from the books in which he studied, or which he has been accus- 
tomed to teach, and many teachers cannot teach profitably from any 
other. Weeks are thus passed, in which the school is going through 
the process of organization, and the pupils are becoming accustomed 
to the methods and requirements of a new teacher — some of them 
are put back, or made to retrace their studies in new books, while 
others are pushed forward into studies for which they are not pre- 
pared ; and at the end of three or four months, the school relapses 
into chaos. There is constant change, but no progress. 

This want of system, and this succession of new teachers, goes 
on from term to term, and year to year — a process which would in- 
volve any other interest in speedy and utter ruin, where there was 
not provision made for fresh material to be experimented upon, and 
counteracting influences at work to restore, or at least obviate the 
injury done. What other business of society could escape utter 
wreck, if conducted with such want of system, — with such constant 
disregard of the fundamental principle of the division of labor, and 
with a succession of new agents every three months, none of them 
trained to the details of the business, each new agent acting without 
any knowledge of the plan of his predecessor, or any well settled 
plan of his own ! The public school is not an anomaly, an excep- 
tion, among the great interests of society. Its success or failure de- 
pends on the existence or absence of certain conditions ; and if 
complete failure does not follow the utter neglect of these conditions, 
it is because every term brings into the schools a fresh supply of 
children to be experimented upon, and sweeps away others beyond 
the reach of bad school instruction and discipline ; and because the 
minds of some of these children are, for a portion of each day, left 



298 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



to the action of their own inherent forces, and the more kindly influ- 
ences of nature, the family and society. 

Among these conditions of success in the operation of a system of 
public schools, is such a classification of the scholars as shall bring 
a larger number of similar age and attainments, at all times, and in 
every stage of their advancement, under teachers of the right qualifi- 
cations, and shall enable these teachers to act upon numbers at once, 
for years in succession, and carry them all forward effectually together, 
in a regular course of instruction. 

The great principle to be regarded in the classification, either of 
the schools of a town or district, or of scholars in the same school, 
is equality of attainments, which will generally include those of the 
same age. Those who have gone over substantially the same ground, 
or reached, or nearly reached the same point of attainment in several 
studies, should be put together, and constitute, whenever their num- 
bers will authorize it, one school. These again should be arranged 
in different classes, for it is seldom practicable, even if it were ever 
desirable, to have but one class in every study in the same grade of 
school. Even in very large districts, where the scholars are pro- 
moted from a school of a lower grade to one of a higher, after being 
found qualified in certain studies, it is seldom that any considerable 
number will have reached a common standard of scholarship in all 
their studies. The same pupil will have made very different prog- 
ress in different branches. He will stand higher in one and lower 
in another. By arranging scholars of the same general division in 
different classes, no pupil need be detained by companions who have 
made, or can make less progress, or be hurried over lessons and sub- 
jects in a superficial manner, to accommodate the more rapid ad- 
vancement of others. Although equality of attainment should be 
regarded as the general principle, some regard should be paid to 
age, and other circumstances. A large boy of sixteen, from the 
deficiency of his early education, Avhich may be his misfortune and 
not his fault, ought not to be put into a school or class of little chil- 
dren, although their attainments may be in advance of his. This 
step would mortify and discourage him. In such extreme cases, that 
arrangement will be best which will give the individual the greatest 
chance of improvement, with the least discomfort to himself, and 
hindrance to others. Great disparity of age in the same class, or the 
same school, is unfavorable to uniform and efficient discipline, and 
the adaptation of methods of teaching, and of motives to application 
and obedience. Some regard, too, should be had to the preferences 
of individuals, especially among the older pupils, and their probable 
destination in life. The mind comes into the requisitions of study 
more readily, and works with higher results, when led onward by 
the heart. ; and the utility of any branch of study, its relations to 
future success in life, once clearly apprehended, becomes a power- 
ful motive to effort. 

Each class in a school should be as large as is consistent with 
thoroughness and minuteness of individual examination, and practi- 



GRADATION OP SCHOOLS. 299 

cable, without bringing together individuals of diverse capacity, 
knowledge, and habits of study. A good teacher can teach a class 
of forty with as much ease as a class of ten, and with far more profit 
to each individual, than if the same amount of time was divided up 
among four classes, each containing one-fourth of the whole number. 
When the class is large, there is a spirit, a glow, a struggle which 
can never be infused or called forth in a small class. Whatever 
time is spent upon a few, which could have been as profitably spent 
on a larger number, is a loss of power and time to the extent of the 
number who were not thus benefited. The recitations of a large 
class must be more varied, both as to order and methods, so as to 
reach those whose attention would wander if not under the pressure 
of constant excitement, or might become slothful from inaction or a 
sense of security. Some studies will admit of a larger number in a 
class than others. 

The number of classes for recitation in the same apartment, by 
one teacher, should be small. This will facilitate the proper division 
of labor in instruction, and allow more time for each class. The 
teacher intrusted with the care of but few studies, and few recita- 
tions, can have no excuse but indolence, or the want of capacity, if 
he does not master these branches thoroughly, and soon acquire the 
most skillful and varied methods of teaching them. His attention 
will not be distracted by a multiplicity and variety of cares, pressing 
upon him at the same time. This principle does not require that 
every school should be small, but that each teacher should have a 
small number of studies and classes to superintend. 

In a large school, properly classified, a division of labor can be 
introduced in the department of government, as well as in that of 
instruction. By assigning the different studies to a sufficient num- 
ber of assistants, in separate class-rooms, each well qualified to teach 
the branches assigned, the principal teacher may be selected with 
special reference to his ability in arranging the studies, and order of 
exercises of the school, in administering its discipline, in adapting 
moral instruction to individual scholars, and superintending the 
operations of each class-room, so as to secure the harmonious action 
and progress of every department. The talents and tact required for 
these and similar duties, are more rarely found than the skill and 
attainments required to teach successfully a particular study. When 
found, the influence of such a principal, possessing in a high degree, 
the executive talent spoken of, will be felt through every class, and 
by every subordinate teacher, giving tone and efficiency to the whole 
school. 

To facilitate the introduction of these, and similar principles of 
classification, into the organization and arrangements of the schools 
of a town or district, as fast and as far as the circumstances of the 
population will admit, the following provisions should be engrafted 
into the school system of every state. 

1. Every town should be clothed with all the powers requisite to 
establish and maintain a sufficient number of schools of different 
grades, at convenient locations, to accommodate all the children re- 



300 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

siding within their respective limits — irrespective of any territorial 
division of the town into school districts. 

2. Should provision be made for the creation of territorial school 
districts, a gradation of districts should be recognized, and every 
district having over sixty children of an age to attend school, should 
be obliged to maintain a primary school under a female teacher for 
the young pupils, and provide a secondary school for the older and 
more advanced pupils. 

3. No village, or populous district, in-which two or more schools 
of different grades for the younger and older children respectively, 
can be conveniently established, should be sub-divided into two or 
more independent districts. 

4. Any two or more adjoining districts, in the same, or adjoining 
towns, should be authorized to establish and maintain a secondary 
school for the older and more advanced pupils of such districts, for 
the whole, or any portion of the year. 

5. Any district, not having children enough to require the perma- 
nent establishment of two grades of schools, should be authorized to 
determine the periods of the year in which the public school shall 
be kept, and to determine the age and studies of the children who 
shall attend at any particular period of the year, and also to send the 
older pupils to the secondary school of an adjoining district. 

The extent to which the gradation of schools can be carried, in 
any town or district, and the limit to which the number of classes 
in any school can be reduced, will depend on the compactness, 
number, and other circumstances of the population, in that town or 
district, and the number and age of the pupils, and the studies and 
methods of instruction in that school. A regular gradation of schools 
might embrace Primary, Secondary and High Schools, with Inter- 
mediate Schools, or departments, between each grade, and Supple- 
mentary Schools, to meet the wants of a class of pupils not provided 
for in either of the above grades. 

1 . Primary Schools, as a general rule, should be designed for 
children between the ages of three and eight years, with a further 
classification of the very youngest children, when their number will 
admit of it. These schools can be accommodated, in compact villa- 
ges, in the same building with the Secondary or High School ; but 
in most large districts, it will be necessary and desirable to locate 
them in different neighborhoods, to meet the peculiarities of the pop- 
ulation, and facilitate the regular attendance of very young children, 
and relieve the anxiety of parents for their safety on their way to and 
from school. The school-room should be light, cheerful, and large 
enough for the evolutions of large classes — furnished with appropri- 
ate seats, furniture, apparatus and means of visible illustration, and 
having a retired, dry and airy play-ground, with a shelter to resort to 
in inclement weather, and with flower borders, shrubbery and shade 
trees, which they should be taught to love and respect. The play- 
ground is as essential as the school-room, for a Primary School, and 
is indeed the uncovered school-room of physical and moral educa- 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 3Q1 

tion, and the place where the manners and personal habits of children 
can be better trained than elsewhere. x With them, the hours of play 
and study, of confinement and recreation, must alternate more fre- 
quently than with older pupils. To teach these schools properly, — 
to regulate the hours of play and study so as to give variety, vivacity, 
and interest to all of the exercises, without over-exciting the nervous 
system, or over-tasking any faculty of mind or body, — to train boys 
and girls to mild dispositions, graceful and respectful manners, and 
unquestioning obedience, — to cultivate the senses to habits of quick 
and accurate observation and discrimination, — to prevent the forma- 
tion of artificial and sing-song tones, — to teach the use of the voice, 
and of simple, ready and correct language, and to begin in this way, 
and by appropriate exercises in drawing, calculation, and lessons on 
the properties and classification of objects, the cultivation of the 
intellectual faculties, — to do all these things and more, require in 
the teacher a rare union of qualities, seldom found in one in a hun- 
dred of the male sex, and to be looked for with the greatest chance 
of success among females, " in whose own hearts, love, hope and 
patience, have first kept school." 

The earlier we can establish, in every populous district, primary 
schools, under female teachers, whose hearts are made strong by 
deep religious principle, — who have faith in the power of Christian 
love steadily exerted to fashion anew the bad manners, and soften 
the harsh and self-willed perverseness of neglected children, — with 
patience to begin every morning, with but little if any perceptible ad- 
vance beyond where they began the previous morning, — with prompt 
and kind sympathies, and ready skill in music, drawing, and oral 
methods, the better it will be for the cause of education, and for ev- 
ery other good cause. 

2. Secondary Schools should receive scholars at the age of eight 
years, or about that age, and carry them forward in those branches 
of instruction which lie at the foundation of all useful attainments in 
knowledge, and are indispensable to the proper exercise and devel- 
opment of all the faculties of the mind, and to the formation of good 
intellectual tastes and habits of application. If the primary schools 
have done their work properly, in forming habits of attention, and 
teaching practically the first uses of language, — in giving clear ideas 
of the elementary principles of arithmetic, geography, and the sim- 
plest lessons in drawing, the scholars of a well conducted secondary 
school, who will attend regularly for eight or ten months in the year, 
until they are twelve years of age, can acquire as thorough knowl- 
edge of reading, arithmetic, penmanship, drawing, geography, history, 
and the use of the language in composition and speech, as is ever 
given in common or public schools, as ordinarily conducted, to chil- 
dren at the age of sixteen. For this class of schools, well qualified 
female teachers, with good health, self-command, and firmness, are 
as well fitted as male teachers. But if the school is large, both a 
male and female teacher should be employed, as the influence of 
both are needed in the training of the moral character and manners. 



302 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Schools of this grade should be furnished with class-rooms for reci- 
tations, and if large, with a female assistant for every thirty pupils. 

3. High Schools should receive pupils from schools of the grade 
below, and carry them forward in a more comprehensive course of 
instruction, embracing a continuation of their former studies, and 
especially of the English language, and drawing, and a knowledge 
of algebra, geometry and trigonometry, with their applications, the 
elements of mechanics and natural philosophy and chemistry, natural 
history, including natural theology, mental and moral science, politi- 
cal economy, physiology, and the constitution of the United States. 
These and other studies should form the course of instruction, modi- 
fied according to the sex, age, and advancement, and to some extent, 
future destination of the pupils, and the standard fixed by the intelli- 
gence and intellectual wants of the district — a course which should 
give to every young man a thorough English education, preparatory 
to the pursuits of agriculture, commerce, trade, manufactures, and 
the mechanical arts, and if desired, for college ; and to every young 
woman, a well disciplined mind, high moral aims, and practical 
views of her own duties, and those resources of health, thought, 
manners and conversation, which bless alike the highest and lowest 
stations in life. All which is now done in private schools of the 
highest grade, and where the wants of any considerable portion of 
the community create such private schools, should be provided for 
in the system of public schools, so that the same advantages, with- 
out being abridged or denied to the children of the rich and the 
educated, should be open at the same time to worthy and talented 
children of the poorest parent. In some districts a part of the 
studies of this grade of schools might be embraced in the Secondary 
Schools, which would thus take the place of the High School ; in 
others, the High School could be open for only portions of the year ; 
and in others, two departments, or two schools, one for either sex, 
would be required. However constituted, whether as one depart- 
ment, or two, as a distinct school, or as part of a secondary school, 
or an ordinary district school, and for the whole year, or part of the 
year, something of the kind is required to meet the wants of the 
whole community, and relieve the public schools from impotency. 
Unless it can be engrafted upon the public school system, or rather 
unless it can grow up and out of the system, as a provision made 
for the educational wants of the whole community, then the system 
will never gather about it the warmth and sustaining confidence and 
patronage of all classes, and especially of those who know best the 
value of a good education, and are willing to spend time and money 
to secure it for their own children. 

4. Intermediate Schools or departments will be needed in large 
districts, to receive a class of pupils who are too old to be continued, 
without wounding their self-esteem, in the school below, or interfering 
with its methods of discipline and instruction, and are not prepared 
in attainments, and habits of study, or from irregular attendance, to 
be arranged in the regular classes of the school above. 

Connected with this class of schools there might be opened a 



GRADATION OF SCHOOLS. 



303 



school or department for those who cannot attend school regularly, 
or for only a short period of the year, or who may wish to attend 
exclusively to a few studies. There is no place for this class of 
scholars, in a regularly constituted, permanent school, in a large 
village. 

5. Supplementary Schools, and means of various kinds should be 
provided in every system of public instruction, for cities and large 
villages, to supply deficiencies in the education of individuals whose 
school attendance has been prematurely abridged, or from any cause 
interfered with, and to carry forward as far and as long as practicable 
into after life, the training and attainments commenced in childhood. 

Evening Schools should be opened for apprentices, clerks, and 
other young persons, who have been hurried into active employment 
without a suitable elementary education. In these schools, those 
who have completed the ordinary course of school instruction, could 
devote themselves to such studies as are directly connected with 
their several trades or pursuits, while those whose early education 
was entirely neglected, can supply, to some extent, such deficiencies. 
It is not beyond the legitimate scope of a system of public instruc- 
tion, to provide for the education of adults, who, from any cause, 
in early life were deprived of advantages of school instruction. 

Libraries, and courses of familiar lectures, with practical illustra- 
tions, collections in natural history, and the natural sciences, a sys- 
tem of scientific exchanges between schools of the same, and of 
different towns, — these and other means of extending and improving 
the ordinary instruction of the school-room and of early life, ought 
to be provided, not only by individual enterprise and liberality, but 
by the public, and the authorities entrusted with the care and advance- 
ment of popular education. 

One or more of that class of educational institutions known as 
" Reform Schools," " Schools of Industry," or " Schools for Juvenile 
Offenders," should receive such children, as defying the restraining 
influence of parental authority, and the discipline and regulations of 
the public schools, or such as are abandoned by orphanage, or worse 
than orphanage, by parental neglect or example, to idle, vicious and 
pilfering habits, are found hanging about places of public resort, pol- 
luting the atmosphere by their profane and vulgar speech, alluring, 
to their own bad practices, children of the same, and other conditions 
of life, and originating or participating in every street brawl and low- 
bred riot. Such children cannot be safely gathered into the public 
schools ; and if they are, their vagrant habits are chafed by the re- 
straints of school discipline. They soon become irregular, play 
truant, are punished and expelled, and from that time their course is 
almost uniformly downward, until on earth there is no lower point to 
reach. 

Accustomed, as many such children have been from infancy, to 
sights and sounds of open and abandoned profligacy, trained to an 
utter want of self-respect, and the decencies and proprieties of life, 
as exhibited in dress, person, manners and language, strangers to 
those motives of self-improvement which spring from a sense of so- 



304 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



cial, moral and religious obligation, their regeneration involves the 
harmonious co-operation of earnest philanthropy, missionary enter- 
prise, and sanctified wisdom. The districts of all our large cities 
where this class of children are found, are the appropriate field of 
home missions, of unobtrusive personal effort and charity, and of 
systematized plans of local benevolence, embracing friendly inter- 
course with parents, an affectionate interest in the young, the gather- 
ing of the latter into week-day, infant, and primary schools, and 
schools where the use of the needle, and other forms of labor appro- 
priate to the sex and age of the pupils can be given, the gathering 
of both old and young into Sabbath schools and worshipping assem- 
blies, the circulation of books and tracts, of other than a strictly 
religious character, the encouragement of cheap, innocent and hu- 
manizing games, sports and festivities, the obtaining employment for 
adults who may need it, and procuring situations as apprentices, 
clerks, &c, for such young persons as may be qualified by age, 
capacity and character. By individual efforts and the combined 
efforts of many, working in these and other ways, from year to year, 
these moral jungles can be broken up, — these infected districts can 
be purified, — these waste places of society can be reclaimed, and 
many abodes of penury, ignorance and vice can be converted by ed- 
ucation, economy and industry, into homes of comfort, peace and joy. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL-HOUSE. 



305 



Public School-House in Warren, R. I. 



Fig. 1. 




The above cut exhibits a front view of the Public School-house 
erected in the village of Warren, at the expense of the town, in 
1847-48, after drawings made by Mr. Teft, of Providence, under the 
directions of a committee of the town, who consulted with the Com- 
missioner of Public Schools, and visited Providence, Boston, Salem, 
Newhuryport and other places, in order to ascertain the latest im- 
provements in school architecture, before deciding on the details of 
the plan. To this committee, and particularly to two of its members, 
Mr. E. W. Burr and Mr. G. S. Gardiner, is the town largely indebted 
for the time and personal supervision which they devoted to this 
public improvement, from its first inception to its completion, without 
any other reward than the realization of their wish to secure for their 
town the best school-house, for the amount of money expended, in 
the State. The Commissioner of Public Schools remarked, in his 
address at the dedication of the house, in September, 1848, " that, for 
location, style, construction, means of warming, ventilation, and clean- 
liness, and for the beauty and convenience of the seats and desks, he 
had not seen a public school-house superior to this in New England. 
It is a monument at once of the liberality of the town, and of a wise 
economy on the part of the committee." The town appropriated 
$10,000, and the committee expended $8,594. 

The opening of the Public School in this edifice was followed by 
a large increase of attendance from the children of the town. 
20 



306 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The lot is 225 deep and 100 feet wide for a depth of 125 feet, and 161 feet wide 
for the remaining 64 feet. It is divided into three yards, as exhibited in the 
ground plan, (Fig. 2,) each substantially inclosed, and planted with trees and 
shrubbery. 

The dimensions of the building are 62 feet by 44 on the ground. It is built of 
brick in the most workmanlike manner. 

Most of the details of construction, and of the arrangement in the interior, are 
similar to those described on page 214. 

Each room is ventilated by openings controlled by registers, both at the floor 
and the ceiling, into four flues carried up in the wall, and by a large flue con- 
structed of thoroughly seasoned boards, smooth on the inside, in the partition 
wall, (Fig. 3, x.) 

The whole building is uniformly warmed by two of Culver's furnaces placed 
in the cellar. 

Every means of cleanliness are provided, such as scrapers, mats, sink with 
pump, wash basin, towels, hooks for outer garments, umbrella stands, &c. 

The tops of the desks are covered with cloth, and the aisles are to be cheaply 
carpeted, so as to diminish, if not entirely prevent, the noise which the moving 
of slates and books, and the passing to and fro, occasion in a school-room. 



A — Front yard 

B — Girls' yard. 

C — Boys' yard. 

P — Privies. 

W— Well. 

F — Culver's Furnace 




PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLrHOUSE IN WA11REN. 
Fig. 3— First Floor. 



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ESSSZS^ 



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A — Front entrance. 

B — Girls' entrance, with mats, scra- 
pers, hooks for clothes, a sink, pump, 
basin, Sec. 

C — Boys' entrance do. 

R — Recitation rooms, connected by 
sliding doors. 

R, P — Platform for recitation, with a 
blackboard in the rear. 

T — Teacher's platform. 

S — Seats and desks; see page 205. 



Q. — Library and apparatus. 

w— Windows, with inside Venetian 

blinds, 
c — Flues for ventilation in the outer 

wall. 
x. — Flue for ventilation, lined with 

smooth, well seasoned boards, 
y — Bell-rope, accessible to the teacher 

by an opening in the wall. 
r — Hot air registers. 



E%. 4. — Second Floor. 



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308 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Union School-House, at Woonsocket and Chepachet, R. I. 

By the school law of Rhode Island, two or more adjoining school districts in 
the same, or adjoining towns, may, by concurrent vote, agree to unite for the 
purpose of maintaining a secondary or grammar school, for the older and more 
advanced pupils of such associating districts. Under this provision the four 
school districts in the town of Cumberland, which comprise the village of 
Woonsocket, voted to unite and provide a school-house for the more advanced 
pupils, leaving the younger to be accommodated in their respective districts. 
The Union school-house is located on a beautiful site, the donation of Edward 
Harris, Esq., and is built substantially after the plan of the Warren Public 
school-house, already described, at a cost of $7,000. The following are the front 
and side elevations, as originally drawn by Mr. Teft, but not adopted by the 
committee. 




Side Elevation. 




Front Elevation. 

Under the provision above cited, the three districts into which the village of 
Chepachet, in the town of Glocester, is divided, voted to establish a Union 
School, and to provide a suitable house for the same. The building is 50 feet by 
34, with two stories, and stands in the centre of a large lot, a little removed from 
the main street, and is the ornament and pride of the village. The lower floor 
is divided into two apartments ; one for the Primary, and the other for an Inter- 
mediate School, for the younger pupils of the village, while the Union or Sec- 
ondary School occupies the whole of the second floor. 



UNION SCHOOL-HOUSE IN CHEPACHET. 
Fig. 1.— Plan op First Floor. 



309 




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A—Entrance for Girls to Secondary School, U. 

B— " " Boys " " " 

C — " " Girls to Primar}', E, and Intermediate School, F. 

D_ « « Boys " " •' " " 

E — Primary School-room. 

F — Intermediate ' : 

U — Secondary - l L — Manton Gloeester Library of 900 volumes. 

R — Recitation room. S — Stove. V — Flue for ventilation. 

G — Seat and desk attached, for two pupils, with iron ends. 

Fig. 2. — Plan of Second Floor. 



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310 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Plan, &c, of Union School-House in Pawtucket, R. I 



Fig. 1— Perspective. 




This school-house is calculated to accommodate, on the first floor, a Pri- 
mary School, (D,)with seats and desks for one hundred and sixty pupils; two 
Intermediate Schools, (E, E,) for sixty-four pupils each ; and on the second floor 
a High School, (P,) for one hundred and seventy pupils. 

The building is warmed and ventilated by a furnace in the cellar, from which 
the hot air is conveyed into the several apartments, as indicated by the regis- 
ters, (r, r, r, r,) in Figs. 2 and 3, and discharged by flues carried up in the walls, 
as seen at v, v, v, v. 

Each school-room is furnished with an appropriate place for outer garments, 
and with scrapers, mats and other means of neatness and cleanliness. 

The boys and girls have each a separate yard in the rear, and separate en- 
trances into the school-rooms. 

The High School is furnished with seats and desk having cast-iron end 
pieces similar to those described on page 282. 

The Primary and Intermediate school-rooms are furnished with the patent 
Revolving Pivot Chair, and School-desk, manufactured by J. L. Mott, 264 Water 
street, New York. The seat of the chair is wood ; all other parts are of cast- 
iron. The seat and back turn on a pivot, while the pedestal is screwed fast to 
the floor. The height of the lower part of the top of the desk is just equal to 
the highest part of the back of the chair, so as to allow it to pass under. The 
front edge of the seat is in a perpendicular line with the edge of the tap of the 
desk, so that the scholar is required to sit erect when engaged in writing or 
studying, and the same time that part of his back which requires support is fully 
in contact with the chair. 

Since the chairs above described were placed in this house, Mr. Mott has 
modified the patterns — so as to carry the back piece higher, and thus give sup- 
port to the muscles above the small of the back. The iron can be covered with 
felt, and thus the rapid conduction of heat from the body, especially from the 
spinal column, in children thinly clad, and of delicate constitutions may be 
prevented. 



UNION SCHOOL HOUSE IN PAWTUCKET. 



311 



Union School- House in Pawtucket. 



Fig. 2.— Plan op First Floor. 



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A — Entrance to High School. 

B — Entrance for Boys to the Primary and Intermediate Schools. 
C— Entrance for Girls to the Primary and Intermediate Schools. 
D — School-room, 30 feet by 24, for Primary School. 
E, E — " " 40 feet by 16, for Intermediate Schools. 
F— : < " 40 feet by 40, for High School. 
G — Room for Apparatus, &c. 
H — Recitation room to High School, 20 feet by 16. 

I— K — Entrance room, one for Boys and the other for Girls, fitted up with 
hooks, shelves, wash-stand, &c. 
T — Teacher's desk without any platform. 

Fig. 3. — Plan op Second Floor — High School. 




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DISTRICT SCHOOL-HOUSE IN CENTREMILL. 



313 



Plan and Description of District School-House in CentremelLj 
North Providence, R. I. 




■~ . 



This house was erected after designs by Mr. Teft, of Providence. It 
stands back from the highway, on an elevated site, in the midst of a 
grove, and for beauty of design 
and convenience of arrangement, 
is not surpassed by any similar 
structure in New England. It is 
26 feet by 51. and 13 feet high in 
the clear, with two departments 
on the same floor. 



A, Boys' entry, G feet by 10. 

B, Girls' ditto. 

C, Primary department, 20 feet by 
25, with desks and seats attached 
for 70 pupils. 

D, Secondary, or Grammar depart- 
ment, 25 feet by 25, with desks 
and chairs for 04 pupils; see p. 
120. 

r, Register for hot air. 

v, v, Flues for ventilation. 

c, Closets for dinner pails of those 

who come from a distance 
s, Sink. 



The smoke pipe is carried up be- 
eween the ventilating flues, and the 
top of the chimney is finished so as to 
accommodate the bell. 




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26 



314 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



The persective of the new school-house at Centerdale, North Providence, on 
the preceding page, gives a very inadequate idea of the proportion and style 
of the building itself. Better justice is done to the architect in the view on the 
next page, of Mr. Kingsbury's Female Seminary in Providence. 



Plan of School-House at Washington Village in Coventry, R. I. 

The following cut presents the ground plan of the new school-house in the 
village of Washington, in the town of Coventry, R. I. The location is on the 
high ground in the rear of the village, and commands an extensive prospect in 
every direction. The site and yard, occupying one acre, was given to the dis- 
trict by Governor Whipple. The whole structure, without and within, is an 
ornament to the village, and ranks among the best school-houses in R.hode 
Island. 



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A — Boy's entrance. I F — Desks for two, with iron end-piece. 

B— Girl's entrance. G— Chairs supported on iron pedestal. 

C — Primary school-room. H— Register for hot air. 

D — Secondary, or Grammar Depart- R— Flue for ventilation, within which 

ment. is carried up the smoke-pipe. 

E — Teacher's platform. 

The two school-rooms can be thrown into one, for any general exercise ot 
the two schools, by sliding doors. 

The two rooms are uniformly heated by a furnace in the basement. 

There is a well, sink, basin, mats, scrapers, bell, and all the necessary fixtures 
and appendages of a school-house of the first class. 

The cost of the building and furniture was $2,300. 

The district possesses a library of upwards of four hundred volumes, the cost 
of which was raised by subscription in the District. 



:16 



SOHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Chilson's Air-Warming and Ventilating Furnace, 
Patented and Manufactured by Gardner Chilson, Boston. 




The construction of the Air- Warming and Ventilating Furnace was projected 
by the inventor, to obviate the serious, if not fatal, objections, so generally 
made, to the use of furnaces for wanning apartments, where a fresh, healthful 
atmospheric air is required. From long experience in putting up furnaces, in 
which coal was consumed in deep iron pots ; and the air which they warmed was 
made to pass over a large extent of iron surface, made and kept red-hot, he 
found that the occupants of the rooms thus warmed, complained that the air 
was not unfrequently filled with the gases of the burning coal, and was at all 
times dry and stagnant, causing, especially to persons of a nervous tempera- 
ment, disagreeable sensations to the whole system, such as dizziness of the 
head, headache, inflammation of the eyes and lungs, dryness of the lips and 
skin, &c. He found, too, by his own experience and observation in the manu- 
facture and use of furnaces of this kind, that there was an unnecessary con- 
sumption of coal, when burnt in deep, straight and narrow pots, causing the 
coal to melt and run to cinders, and at the same time burning out the pots, and 
loosening the joints of the furnace, by which the deadly gases escaped into the 
air-chambers, and hence into the apartments above. These objections, both on 
the score of health and expense, the inventor claims that he has thoroughly ob- 
viated in his Air-Warming and Ventilating Furnace, and at the same time pre- 
served all the advantages heretofore realized from this mode of warming build- 
ings. The advantages of the Furnace are — 

1. The fire-pot is constructed on the most economical and philosophical 
principles. It is broad and shallow, — at least twice as broad and one third as 
deep as the common fire-pot ; — is one third smaller at the bottom than at the 
top, and is lined with fire-brick or soap-stone. Thus the fire-bed is deep enough 
to keep the coal well ignited with a slow but perfect combustion, while the en- 
tire heat from the fuel is given out to act upon the radiating surface alone and 
the fire-pot can never become red-hot, and does not require renewal. This 
plan for burning coal is original with the inventor, and has met with universal 
approbation. 

2. The radiating surface is large, and so placed that it receives the immedi- 
ate and natural action of the heat, and at the same time imparts its heat in the 



CHILSON'S FURNACE. 3 [ 7 

most direct and uniform manner to the fresh air from without, -without suffering 
waste by absorption from the outer walls of 'the air-chamber. 

3. The air-chamber is large, and the fresh air is admitted and discharged 
so readily and uniformly thai no portion of the radiating surface can ever be- 
come overheated ; and a delightful summer temperature is maintained in the 
rooms. 

4. The joints of the furnace are so constructed, that, even if the iron-work 
was liable, like other furnaces, to crack from extreme expansion, by being over- 
heated, (which it is not,) the gas from the burning coal cannot escape into the 
air-chamber. 

5. There are no horizontal inner surfaces on which dust and soot can gather, 
which do not, at the same time, clean themselves, or admit of being easily 
cleaned. 

6. The grate in the fire-pot is so constructed, that the ashes can be easily de- 
tached, and the combustion facilitated. 

7. It has stood all the test which sharp rivalry and the most severe philosophi- 
cal practical science could apply to it, and has thus far accomplished all that 
its inventor promised, and when tried in the same building with other fur- 
naces, has uniformly received the preference. 

Dr. Bell, Superintendent of the McLean Asylum for the Insane, who has 
given this whole subject his particular attention, in his Essay on the Practical 
Methods of Ventilating Buildings, published in the proceedings of the Massa- 
chusetts Medical Society for 1848, remarks as follows : 

" The character of any variety of the hot-air furnace is measured, in my 
judgment, by the simplicity of its construction, its non-liability to be brought 
to an undue degree of heat in any part, and its ready receipt and emission of 
air. That made by Mr. Gardner Chilson, of Boston, with an air-chamber of 
brick, and an interspace of two or three feet in width, appears to me to combine 
all the essentials attainable of this mode of heating air, more fully than any 
other which has fallen under my observation." 

In 1847, the School Committee of Boston sanctioned, by a unanimous vote, 
the introduction of this furnace into the new school-houses to be erected in 
that city, on the recommendation of a sub-committee, to which the whole sub- 
ject of warming and ventilating the school-rooms had been referred. The fol- 
lowing is the recommendation referred to. 

" Your Committee have made themselves acquainted not only with all the 
Furnaces which have been manufactured in this place, and its neighborhood, 
but with all those which have been exhibited here recently. Most of them 
show much ingenuity of contrivance and excellence of workmanship ; but are 
all, so far as we can judge, inferior, in many respects, to the one invented by 
Mr. Chilson, a model and plans of which we now exhibit, and recommend as 
superior to all others. 

It is simple in its structure, easily managed, will consume the fuel perfectly, 
and with a moderate fire. It is fitted for wood or coal. The fire-place is broad 
and shallow, and is lined with soapstone or fire-brick, which not only makes it 
perfectly safe and durable, but modifies very materially the usual effect of the 
fire upon the iron pot. 

The principal radiating surfaces are wrought iron, of a suitable thickness 
for service, while at the same time the heat of the smallest fire is communi- 
cated immediately to the air-chamber. The mode of setting this Furnace we 
consider essential ; more especially the plan of admitting the air to the furnace 
at its lowest point, as it then rises naturally into the apartments above. This 
process commences as soon as the temperature is raised even a single degree. 
The outer walls remain cold ; the floor above is not endangered, and the whole 
building is rapidly filled with an atmosphere which is at once salubrious and 
delightful." 

This Ventilating Furnace may be seen in the Mayhew, Dwight, Hancock, 
Boylston, Bowdoin, and Ingraham school-houses, in Boston ; also in several 
new school-houses in Cambridge, Roxbury, Dorchester, Springfield, in the 
Blind Asylum and House of Industry, South Boston, and in hundreds of pri- 
vate houses in Boston and its vicinity. 



318 



busiinell's furnace and schcol-stove. 
Bushnell's Hot Air Furnace. 




Patented and Manufactured by Ezra Clark, Jr., 61 Front street, Hartford. 

This invention was projected by the Rev. Dr. Bushnell, of Hartford, Conn., 
for his own use, and by his consent patented in his name, though he disclaims 
having or retaining any legal interest in it, or title to income from it. 

In this furnace the fire-pot or burner differs from others, in the fact that the 
feeding-trunk opens directly into the fire, close upon the grate, and not above 
the fire, allowing the fire to be stirred above the grate a'nd through the feeding- 
trunk itself. A stiff poker is pushed under the fire, along the top of the grate, 
and then is borne down, as a lever, throwing up the coals and allowing the 
ashes to fall through. The dead coals and cinders will thus be thrown up by 
the action of the poker, and may be taken off by a claw or a small iron rake. 
The fire being cleared in this way, the grate need never be dropped, and the 
dirty process of riddling will be avoided. The ash-door being always shut 
when the fire is stirred, the tender will not be enveloped in a cloud of ashes. 
The fire, too, may be stirred and cleared when it is in full action, as well as 
at any other time, and the coals will never be rattled down into a close state 
by the agitation, so as to choke the fire, but will always be thrown up into a 
light and open condition, so as to facilitate the combustion. 

The radiating part of this furnace, that which extracts the heat, is distin- 
guished by the fact that the cold air is passed into the furnace chamber through 
horizontal iron tubes or trunks, between which, as composing the sides of up- 
right tubes or trunks, the hot gas of the fire is circulating and giving up its 
heat as it passes off into the chimney ; so that the cold air, in its coldest state, 
is brought in direct contact with the heated furnace, and is actually heated be- 
fore it escapes into the chamber of the furnace. Whereas if the heated sur- 
face were left to act only upon the mixed and already half-heated air of the 
chamber, in the ordinary way, the difference of temperature between it and the 
air in contact would be smaller, and therefore less heat be given out by the 
same amount of surface. 

While, too, the air is passing one way to be heated inside the iron trunks, the 
hot gas is passing the other way to be cooled on the outside, that is, up and 
down the upright trunks, and thus the mean difference of temperature is kept 
the greatest possible at every point. The greatest amount of heat will be 
communicated in this way, by the least amount of iron surface ; that is, in the 
cheapest manner possible. Meantime the construction is such that the radia- 
tor will clear itself, never requiring to be disturbed until it is worn out. Thus 
it may stand from season to season, always ready for use. 

The fire-pot or burner can be furnished with or without soap-stone or fire- 
brick lining. 

Ezra Clark, Jr., also manufactures a Ventilating SchooLHouse Stove, in- 
vented by Dr. Bushnell, and constructed on the same principle as his Hot Air 
Furnace, but intended to burn wood. Fresh air is introduced from outside the 
building by a flue below the floor, and is warmed before it is discharged into 
the school-room. The stove is placed in the school-room, and occupies a 
space of not more than two and a half feet square. The exterior is finished 
aa a handsome style, and the cost is low. 



APPARATUS. 

In addition to che necessary furniture of a school, such as seats, desks ; 
and other fixtures and articles required for the accommodation of pupils 
and teacher, and the order and cleanliness of the premises, every school- 
room should be furnished with such apparatus as shall enable the teacher 
to employ the hand and eye of every pupil in illustration and experiment 
so far as may be practicable and desirable in the course of instruction 
pursued in the school. It is therefore important, in the internal arrange- 
ment of a school-house, to have regard to the safe-keeping, display, and 
use of such apparatus as the grade of the school, for which the house is 
intended, may require. A few suggestions will therefore be made on 
these points, and in aid of committees and trustees in selecting apparatus. 

1. In a large school, and in schools of the highest grade, there will be 
need of a separate apartment appropriated to the safe-keeping of the 
apparatus, and in some departments of instruction, for the proper use of 
the same. But in small schools, and as far as practicable in all schools, 
maps, diagrams, and other apparatus, should be in view of the school at 
all times. 

This will not only add to the attractions of the school, and make the 
school-room look like a workshop of education, but. will awaken a desire 
in the pupils to know the uses of the various articles, and to become ac- 
quainted with the facts and principles which can thus be seen, heard, or 
handled. 

2. Such articles as are liable to be injured by dust, or handling, must 
be provided with an appropriate room, or a case of sufficient size, having 
glazed and sliding doors, and convenient shelves. 

The doors should not be glazed to the floor, on account of liability to 
breakage, and also to admit of drawers for maps and diagrams, and a 
closet for such articles as may be uninteresting or unseemly to the eye, 
although useful in their place. 

The shelves should be movable, so as to admit of additions of larger 
or smaller specimens of apparatus, and also of such arrangement as the 
varying tastes of different teachers may require. 

3. There should be a table, with a level top, and capable of being made 
perfectly firm, unless the teacher's desk can be so, for the teacher to place 
his apparatus on, when in use. 

4. The apparatus of every school-room should be selected with refer- 
ence to the grade of schools to which it is appropriated, and in Primary 
and District schools in particular, should be of simple construction and 
convenient for use. 

5. As far as practicable, the real object in nature and art, and not a 
diagram, or model, should be secured. 



320 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

The following list of articles is necessarily very imperfect, but it may 
help to guide committees in their search after apparatus. 

Articles indispensable in Schools of every Grade. 

A clock. 

The cardinal points of the heavens painted on the ceiling, or on the 
teacher's platform, or the floor of the recitation room. 

As much blackboard, or black surface on the walls of the school-room, 
and the recitation rooms, as can be secured. A portion of this black sur- 
face should be in full view of the whole school, for passing explanations; 
and another portion out of the way, within reach of the smallest pupils. 
One or more movable blackboards, or large slate, with one or more mova- 
ble stands or supporters. 

All the appendages to a blackboard, such as chalk, crayons, and a rub- 
ber of soft cloth, leather, or sheepskin, and a pointer. 

An inkstand, fixed into the desk, with a lid, and with a pen-wiper at- 
tached. 

A slate, iron-bound at the corners, and covered with list, or India-rub- 
ber cloth, for every desk, with a pencil-holder and sponge attached. A 
few extra slates for the use of the youngest pupils, under the care and 
at the discretion of the teacher. 

A map of the district, town, county, and state. 

A terrestrial globe, properly mounted, or suspended by a wire. 

The measure of an inch, foot, yard, and rod, marked off on the edge of 
the blackboard, or on the wall. 

Real measures of all kinds, linear, superficial, solid, and liquid ; as a 
foot-rule, a yard-stick, quarts, bushels, an ounce, pound, &c, for the ex- 
ercise of the eye and hand. 

Vases for flowers and natural grasses. 

Apparatus for a Primary or District School. 
The apparatus for this class of schools cannot be specified with much 
minuteness, because the ages of the pupils, and the modes of instruction 
vary so much in different localities. The following list embraces the ar- 
ticles purchased for Primary and District schools in Rhode Island : 
Movable Lesson Posts. These are from three and a half to four feet 
high, and are variously made of wood, and of cast-iron. It 
consists, when made of wood, of an upright piece of plank 
from two to three inches square at the bottom, and dimin- 
ishing regularly to the top, where it is one inch, inserted 
in a round or cross base broad e migh to support the lesson 
board, or card, which is suspended by a ring on a hook at 
or near the top of the post. 

J. L. Mott, 264, Water street, New York, manufactures 
for the Primary schools of the Public School Society of 
New York, a very neat cast-iron lesson stand. 

Reading Lessons. Colored Prints, . and Diagrams of 
various kinds, such as of animals, costumes, trades, &c, 
pasted on boards of wood or strong pasteboard ; some with, 

tand others without printed descriptions beneath; to be 
suspended at appropriate times on the lesson stands, for 
class exercises, and at other times, on the walls, or deposited 
in their appropriate places. 
In this list should be included the numeration table, ta 
bles for reading arithmetical marks, easy lessons, geometri 
cal figures, punctuation marks, outline maps, &c. 




SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



321 

The Gonigraph is a small instrument composed of a number of flat rods 
connected by pivots, which can be put into all possible geometrical figures 
that consist of straight lines and angles, as triangles, squares, pentagons, 
hexagons, octagons, &c. 




v == y 



The Arithmeticon, represented in the annexed cut, is a most useful in- 
strument. In an oblong open frame, twelve rows of wooden balls, alter- 
nately black and white, and of the size of a nutmeg or small walnut, and 
twelve in each row, are strung like beads on strong wires. The instru- 
ment, when fixed to a stand, is about four feet high, the frame being one- 
fourth part broader than it is high. It may be made much smaller, as 
in the cut. When it is used to exercise the children in arithmetic, the 
teacher or monitor stands behind, and slides the balls along the wires from 
his left to his right, calling out the number he shifts, as, twice two are 
four, thrice two are six, shifting first four balls, and then two more. As 
the children are apt to confuse the balls remaining with those shifted, a 
thin board covers half the surface on the side next the children, as marked 
by a line down the centre, so that they see only the balls shifted to the 
open side. 



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Holbrookes Scientific Apparatus embraces a variety of articles which 1 
will be found highly useful in the District school, in which both the older 
and younger pupils of the districts are ordinarily gathered at the same 
time, and under one teacher. 

The following articles constitute a set which costs $14.75, including a 
neat box with lock and key i 

Tellurian; Suspension Orrery; Gear or Wheel Orrery with metal 
wheels j Globe $ Orbit Plain ; Numerical Frame ; Geometrical Forms 

21 



322 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

and 'Solids ; Twenty-Jive Geological Specimens ; Geometry ; Scale and 
Triangle; Block to illustrate Cube Roots ; Geometrical Chart; Manu- 
script Letters : Text Book. 

Mr. Josiah Holbrook of New York, whose name was originally con- 
nected with this set of apparatus, and with which, as manufactured under 
his direction, we are familiar, disclaims at this time (1848) any responsi- 
bility for the articles manufactured by Holbrook & Co., of Ohio. 

This gentleman, so long and so favorably known from his connection 
with Lyceums, and elementary instruction, is now residing in New York, 
and has an office in the Hall of the Public School Society. There, in 
connection with Mr. Seton, and two very ingenious workmen, (Messrs. 
Riker,) he is now getting up apparatus "which shall be simple, easily 
used, readily understood, not liable to get out of order, and durable." 
The following is a list of articles already prepared for Primary Schools : 

A Geological Cabinet. , Geometricals, embracing plain figures, solids, models 
of crystals, illustrations of insect architecture and human mechanism, trans- 
posing and revolving figures, all illustrated with cuts and explanations ; a globe 
with maps of the world and United Stales ; numeral frame ; a simple lever, 
with weights; a syphon and glass pump, showing the weight of the atmosphere 
in raising water; an air bulb, showing the expansive power of heat, simply by 
the hand; a simple permanent magnet; also an electro-magnet, a microscope, 
a simple orrery, and First Drawing Book for children, are among the instru- 
ments fitted to make clear, distinct, correct and lasting first impressions upon 
young minds, before reading-lessons or the letters of the alphabet can be ren- 
dered intelligible to them. 

To teach Geography and History properly, the following maps are 
desirable : 

Map or plan of the school-room, yard, &c. 
Map or plan of the District or Village. 
Map or plan of the Town, County, and State. 
Map of the United States. 
Map of North America. 
Map of Europe. 
Map of the World. 
Map of Palestine. 

Map of the countries mentioned in the Bible and in ancient history. 
Map of Europe during the middle ages. 

Fitch's Chirography, or plates and instruction in map-drawing. 
Series of Outline Maps", published by J. H. Mather & Co., Hartford, Ct 
A selection from Borgaus & Johnston's Physical Atlas, published in 
Edinburgh in 1847, viz. 

Rivers in America. 

Rivers in Europe and Asia. 

Mountain chains in North and South America. 

Mountain chains in Europe and Asia. 

Regions of Earthquakes and Volcanoes. 

Geological Map of America. 

Geological Map of Europe. 

Distribution of Food-plants over the world. 

Distribution of Animals. 

Distribution of Man. 
Colton's Historical Chart. 
Willard's Map of Time. 
Mattison's Astronomical Maps. 
Page's Normal Chart of Elementary Sounds. 



SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



323 



Fulton's Chirographic Charts. 
Green's Analysis of Sentences. 
Henry's Family and School Monitor. 
Wickham's Drawing Tablets. 



Apparatus for Grammar Schools. 

The School Committee of Boston, in 1847, adopted the following arti- 
cles as a set of Philosophical Apparatus for the Grammar schools, which 
was selected and classified by Mr. Wightman, whose long experience in 
manufacturing apparatus for schools of every grade, admirably qualified 
him for the work : 



Laws of Matter. 

Apparatus for illustrating Inertia. 

Pair of Lead Hemispheres, for Co- 
hesion. 

Pair of Glass Plates, for Capillary 
Attraction. 

Laws of Motion. 

Ivory Balls on Stand, for Collision. 
Set of eight illustrations for Centre 

of Gravity. 
Sliding Frame, for Composition of 

Forces. 
Apparatus for illustrating Central 

Forces. 



Mechanics. 

Complete set of Mechanicals, con- 
sisting of Pulleys ; Wheel and 
Axle ; Capstan ; Screw ; Inclined 
Plane ; Wedge. 

Hydrostatics. 

Bent Glass Tube, for Fluid Level. 
Mounted Spirit Level. 
Hydrometer and Jar, for Specific 

Gravity. 
Scales and Weights, for Specific 

Gravity. 
Hydrostatic Bellows, and Paradox. 

Hydraulics. 

Lifting, or Common Water Pump. 
Forcing Pump ; illustrating the Fire 

Engine. 
Glass Syphon Cup ; for illustrating 

Intermitting Springs. 
Glass and Metal Syphons. 



Pneumatics. 

Patent Lever Air Pump and Clamp. 

Three Glass Bell Receivers, adapt- 
ed to the Apparatus. 

Condensing and Exhausting Syr- 
inge. 

Copper Chamber, for Condensed 
Air Fountain. 

Revolving Jet and Glass Barrel. 

Fountain Glass, Cock, and Jet for 
Vacuum. 

Brass Magdeburg Hemispheres. 

Improved Weight Lifter for upward 
pressure. 

Iron Weight of 56 lbs. and Strap 
Flexible Tube and Connectors 
for Weight Lifter. 

Brass Plate and Sliding Rod. 

Bolt Head and Jar. 

Tall Jar and Balloon. 

Hand and Bladder Glasses. 

Wood Cylinder and Plate. 

India Rubber Bag, for expansion of 
air. 

Guinea and Feather Apparatus. 

Glass Flask and Stop-Cock, for 
weighing air. 

Electricity. 

Plate Electrical Machine. 
Pith Ball Electrometer. 
Electrical Battery of four Jars. 
Electrical Discharger. 
Image Plates and Figure. 
Insulated Stool. 
Chime of Bells. 
Miser's Plate, for shocks. 
Tissue Figure, Ball and Point. 
Electrical Flyer and Tellurian. 
Electrical Sportsman, Jar and Birds. 
Mahogany Thunder House and 
Pistol. 



324 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Hydrogen Gas Generator. 
Chains, Balls of Pith, and Amal- 
gam. 

Optics. 

Glass Prism ; and pair of Lenses. 
Dissected Eye Ball, showing its 
arrangement. 

Magnetism. 

Magnetic Needle on Stand. 
Pair of Magnetic Swans. 
Glass Vase for Magnetic Swans. 
Horseshoe Magnet. 



Astronomy. 

Improved School Orrery. 
Tellurian, or, Season Machine. 

Arithmetic, and Geometry. 

Set of 13 Geometrical Figures of 

Solids. 
Box of 64 one inch Cubes, for Cube 

Root, &c. 

Auxiliaries. 

Tin Oiler. 

Glass Funnel. 
Sulphuric Acid. 

Set of Iron Weights for Hydrostatic 
Paradox. 



Apparatus for High Schools. 

The articles of Apparatus for a High School, will depend on the extent 
to which such studies as Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, &c, are carried, 
and to the amount of money which can be expended. We have drawn 
up several such lists, and in doing so have been governed by the circum- 
stances mentioned. As the best guide to committees and teachers, we 
shall publish in another place, under the head of Priced Catalogues, &c. 
lists of such articles as can be purchased for sums of money varying from 
$50 to $1000. 




MITCHELL'S OUTLINE MAPS, 

PUBLISHED BY 

3 H. MATHER & CO., HARTFORD: H. H. HAWLEY, & CO., UTICA. 




MITCHELL'S OUTLINE MAPS, REVISED AND IMPROVED. 



This series of Maps have been thoroughly revised and improved ; being ac- 
companied with a Manual of Geography, combining a key to the Maps. 
This revised series consists of the following Maps. 



No. 5. Europe, 
" 6. Asia, 
" 7. Africa. 
" 8. Oceanica, 



4 sheets, 
1 " 
1 " 
1 " 



No. 1. Hemispheres, 2 sheets, 

" 2. North America, 1 " 

" 3. U. States & Mexieo, 4 " 

" 4. South America, 1 " 

These Maps and Manual taken in connection, form a system of elementary 
instruction in Geogrephy and Map-drawing, independently of other text books. 
These maps on a reduced seale are introduced in the revised edition of the 
Manual, by which the method of outline instruction ean be fully carried into 
effect. 

One set of these maps for the school-room, and one manual to eaeh scholar, 
In the class, enables the teachers thoroughly to instruct the whole class simul- 
taneously. 

The maps are backed with substantial bleached cloth, the coasts water-lined, 
and the whole beautifully colored, and cased in a portfolio, accompanied by 
one manual for the teacher. 

Price per set $8. — Extra Manuals of Geography and Key, 30 cents. 



MITCHELL'S ORIGINAL SERIES OF OUTLINE MAPS. 

This set of outlines, being the first and only full series embracing separate 
State Maps, has been introduced into every State in the Union. 
This series is arranged in the following order. 

No. 1. The world represented by Hemis- 



2 sheets, 
1 



ts 



H 



pheres, 
" 2. North America, 
" 3. U. States and Territor's. ) , 
" 4. Mexico and Guatimala, ) 
" 5. Maine, I 

u 6. N. Hampshire and Vt. 1 
" 7. Mass. R. Island and Conn. 1 
" 8. New York, 1 

" 9. N. Jersey, Penn. and Del. 1 
" 10. Maryland and Virginia, 1 
" 11. North & South Carolina, 1 
" 12. G«o. Ala. and Florida, 1 

The State Maps may be profitably used in connection with the revised series, 
by the addition of one key to the full set. One, or any number of the State 
Maps, will be supplied to order. 

Price of full series, $15. — Key 25 cents. — A liberal discount to the trade 



No. 13. Mississippi, Louisiana and 
sas, 
" 14. Kentucky and Tennessee, 
" 15. Ohio, 

" 16. Indiana and Illinois, 
'• 17. Michig'n & pt. of Wisc'n, 
" 18. Missouri and part of Iowa, 
" 19. South America, 
" 20. Europe, 

" 20. Ex.Cent.andSouth'n. Eu. 
" 21. Asia, 
" 22. Africa, 
" 23. Oceanica, 



Arkan- 
sheet. 



326 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



VALE'S GLOBE AND TRANSPARENT SPHERE, 




Vale's Globe and Transparent Sphere, -which is but imperfectly repre- 
sented in the above drawing, aims to accomplish a much desired object, the 
conjunction of the Terrestrial and Celestial Globe, on so simple a principle that 
without cogs or wheels, all the apparent and real motions of the earth and 
neavens can be illustrated. It therefore presents great facilities for pursuing 
together the study of Geography and Astronomy, which cannot be separated 
without injury to each other. 

The outer circle supports the instrument. In this, the axis slides, by which 
the instrument is adjusted. This circle is capable of a swivel motion, by 
which the antipodes, and the seasons in relation to diiferent positions of the spec- 
tator, can be easily exhibited. 



VALE'S AND CORNELL'S GLOBES 327 

The sphere just within the outer circle, represents the great circles of the 
Heavens, as the meridians, equator, ecliptic, with the poles, &c. On this sphere 
can be placed at pleasure, transparent sections of the Celestial Sphere, which 
are not shown in the above drawing. One or more quarter sections can be used 
at a time, by which the stars can be seen within the sphere, or as they appear 
to the earth in a concave heaven, or sphere. On this transparent celestial globe, 
the places of the planets and moon can be represented by wafers, and as the 
sphere revolves, their apparent daily motions and their exact places for every 
hour, can be shown. 

The solid globe within the sphere, represents the Earth. The globe will 
move on its axis to represent the real daily motion of the earth. To this globe 
is attached a small Meridian, on which is placed a broad surface extending 
from the earth within, to the sphere without, by which the horizon is represented 
to a little traveller attached to the upper surface of the meridian. The trav- 
eller can move to any part of the surface of the earth, and the horizon moves 
with him, thus dividing the heavens into the visible and invisible parts to such 
traveller, and thereby representing the earth and heavens as they really appear. 

A quadrant accompanies the globe, but it is attached to the heavens, and not 
to the earth. It has a swivel motion, and thus will serve to measure the alti- 
tude of the sun, &c, at all times. 

The best fitted up Globes have a compass above the stand, and also a horizon- 
tal motion, in the joint of the stand, which is very convenient in large instru- 
ments, as it enables the teacher to turn the instrument, without passing round 
it himself. 

The instrument is accompanied by wires, by which it can be converted into a 
Planetarium. By elevating the North end of the axis 23i degrees, and by bring- 
ing the traveller under the arctic circle, and by turning the Sphere till the eclip- 
tic coincides with the horizon, the instrument will be converted into a planeta- 
rium, for the Globe within may represent the sun, the ecliptic the real passage 
of the Earth, and the horizon the plane of the ecliptic, and the different wires 
will represent the orbits of both the inferior and superior planets. 

With equal simplicity the instrument can be used as a Tellurian, or be 
converted into a Sun Dial, and by it the principles of Dialing can be explained. 

This instrument is accompanied by a pamphlet containing all the instructions 
for its use; and by a larger book, explanatory of the elements of Astronomy, 
and embracing all the problems of "Keith on the Globes," worked out on this 
Globe and Sphere. 

The above instrument is manufactured by G. Vale & Son, No. 3, Franklin 
Square, (Pearl street,) New York. Prices, common size, for schools and 
families, from $25 to $30, packed. For High Schools and Institutes, from $75 
to $95 ; packing extra. 



CORNELL'S 

IMPROVED TERRESTRIAL GLOBE. 

The peculiarities of Cornell's 
Terrestrial Globe consist in repre- 
senting the plane of the ecliptic in 
its true relative position, in whatever 
position the globe may be placed; 
and in having a day-circle turning on 
an axis, by which the line between 
day and night may be shown for any 
day in the calendar to which the in- 
dex may be turned. 

The leading principles of Geogra- 
phy and Astronomy may be illustra- 
ted on this globe, and the most im- 
portant problems satisfactorily solved. 

This Globe is manufactured in Ro- 
chester, by S. Cornell, and is sold in 
all of the large cities, for $3 at retail. 




§28 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

J. H. COLTON'S MAPS, CHAKTS, &c, 

86 Cedar street New Yor&. 

Colton's Illustrated and Embellished Steel Plate Map of the World, 
on Mercator's Projection, exhibiting the recent Arctic and Antarctic Dis- 
eoveries and Explorations, &c, &e. — 6 sheets, 80 by 60, $10,00. 

The Book of the World, containing Geographical, Historical, and Sta- 
tistical Descriptions of all the Countries in the World, illustrated with valua- 
ble Maps and Charts — in 2 volumes,. 1400 pages octavo, $5,00. 

Colton's Map of the World on Mercator's Projection reduced from 
the larger, beautifully engraved on copper — 1 sheet, 32 by 50 inches, $1,25. 

Map of the. Countries mentioned' in. the New Testament, and the Tray- 
els of the Apostles, with Ancient and Modern Names, from the most authen- 
tic sources. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,25. 

Map of Palestine, from the latest authorities, chiefly from the Maps and 
drawings of Robinson and Smith, with corrections and additions furnished by 
the Rev. Dr. E. Robinson, with plans of Jerusalem, and the journeyings of the 
Israelites. — 4 sheets, 80 by 62, $6,00. 

Map of Palestine, from the latest authorities, chiefly from the Maps and 
drawings of Robinson and Smith, with corrections and additions furnished by 
the Rev. Dr. E. Robinson, with a plan of Jerusalem, and of the vicinity of Jertb~ 
salem.—2 sheets, 43 by 32, $2,50. Portable,. $1 ,50. 

Map of Egypt, the Peninsula of Mt.. Sinai, Arabia, Petrea, with the south- 
ern part of Palestine, compiled from the latest authorities ; showing the jour- 
neyings of the Children of Israel from Egypt to the Holy Land. — 1 sheet, 32 
by 25, $1,50. 

Map of Europe, by J. Pinkerton, London,revised and corrected from the latesi 
authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50. 

Map of France, Belgium, and the adjacent countries, by J. Pinkerton, Lon- 
don, revised and corrected from the latest authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50, 

Map of Asia, by J. Pinkerton, London, revised and corrected from the latest 
authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50. 

Map of Africa, by J, Pinkerton, London, revised and corrected from the 
latest authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50. 

Map of North America, from the latest authorities. — 1 sheet, 29 by 26, $1,25. 
Portable, 75ets. 

Map of South America, by J. Pinkerton, London, revised and corrected from 
the latest authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50. 

Map of the West Indies and Adjacent Coasts, by J. Pinkerton, London, 
revised and corrected from the latest authorities. — 1 sheet, 32 by 25, $1,50. 

Map of the West Indies, with part of Guatemala. By David H. Burr — 
1 sheet, 26 by 22, $1,00. 

A Map of the United States, the British Provinces, Mexico and the 
West Indies, showing the country from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oeean. Ex- 
traordinary pains has been taken to make this Map perfectly reliable and au- 
thentic in all respects. It is engraved on steel in the best style of the art, and 
is a very perfect Map of the inhabited portions of North America. In schools 
and seminaries especially, it deserves to take precedence of all Maps hereto- 
fore published in this country. — 4 sheets, 6>2 by 55, $5,00. 

Map of the United States the British Provinces, with parts of Mexico 
and the West Iudies — 1 sheets, 48 by 38, $2,00. 

Map of the United States of America, the British Provinces, Mexico, 
the West Indies and Central America, with parts of New Granada and 
Venezuela. This Map has been most carefully compiled, and contains much 
new and interesting information, it is highly embellished and beautifully ea» 
graved on steel. — 2 sheets, 45 by 36, $2,50. 



COLTON'S MAPS, CHARTS, &c. 329 

Map of the State op New-York, with parts of the adjacent country, embra- 
cing plans of the Cities and some of the larger villages. By David H. Burr — 
6 sheets, 60 by 50, 84,00. 

Map op the City and County of New-York, Brooklyn, Williamsburgh, 
Jersey City, and the Adjacent Waters. — 3 plates, 56 by 32, $3,00. 

Map of the State of Indiana, compiled from the United States Surveys, by 
S. D. King; exhibiting the sections and fractional sections, situation and boun- 
daries of' Counties, the location of Cities, Villages and Post Offices — Canals, 
Raiiroads and other internal improvements, &c. &c. — 6 sheets, 66 by 48, $10,00. 

Map of the State of Kentucky. By Dr. Luke Munsell. — 4 sheets, 53 by 
41, $5,00. 

Sectional Map of the State of Illinois, compiled from the United States 
Surveys. Also, exhibiting the internal improvements; distances between 
Towns, Villages and Post Offices; the outlines of praries, woodlands, marshes, 
and the lands donated to the State by the General Government, for the purpose oi 
internal improvements. By J. M. Peck, John Messinger and A. J. Mathew- 
son— 2 sheets, 43 by 32, $2,50. Portable, $1,50. 

Map of the Surveyed Part of the State of Michigan. By John Fanner, 
1 sheet, 35 by 25, $2,00. Portable, $1,50. 

The Family and School Monitor, an Educational Chart, by James Henry, 
Jr. In this Chart the fundamental maxims in Education, Physical, Moral and 
Intellectual, are presented in such a manner, as to fix the attention and impress 
the memory. It cannot fail to be eminently useiul ; indeed, we believe the pub- 
lic will regard it as indispensable to every family and school in our country. — 2 
sheets, 42 by 32, $1,50. 

Stream of Time, or Chart of Universal History, from the original Ger- 
man of Strauss, revised by D. Haskell. — 2 sheets, 48 by 32, $2,50. 

A Chronological View of the World, exhibiting the leading events of Uni- 
versal History; the origin and progress of the arts and sciences, the obituary of 
distinguished men, and the periods in which they nourished, together with an 
account of the appearance of comets, and a complete view of the fall of meteoric 
stones in all ages, collected chiefly from the article " Chronology" in the New 
Edinburgh Encyclopedia, edited by Sir David Brewster, LL. D., F. R. S., with 
an enlarged view of important events, particularly in regard to American History, 
and a continuation to the present time, collected from authentic sources, by 
Daniel Haskell, A. M., Editor of McCullochs' Universal Gazetteer, and au- 
thor of the articles relating to the United States in the American edition, pp. 
267. Book, 75cts. 

Missionary Map of the World, presenting to the eye, at one view, the moral 
and religious condition of the world, and the effects that are now making for 
its evangelization. It is so colored that all the principal religions of the World, 
with the countries in which they prevail, and their relation, position and extent, 
are distinguished at once, together with the principal stations of the various 
Missionary Societies in our own and other countries. It is on cloth, each hem- 
isphere six feet in diameter, and both printed on one piece of clolh'at one impres- 
sion, making a map with borders 160 by 80 inches, and so finished that it may 
be easily folded and conveyed from place to place, and suspended in any large 
room.— 160 by 80, $10,00. 

Portraits of the Presidents, and Declaration of Independence. — 1 sheet, 
42 by 31, $1,50. 

Chart of Rivers and Mountains, showing the comparative heights of 
Mountains, lengths of Rivers, &c. — 1 sheet, 32 by 50 inches, $1,25. 

Chart of National Flags, beautifully colored, 27 by 25 inches, $1,25. 



330 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

MITCHELL'S NATIONAL MAPS, && 

North East Corner of Market and Seventh sts., Philadelphia. 

The subscriber has issued greatly Improved Editions of his large Map op the 
World, and Reference and Distance Map of the United States. These 
works, with his recent publication, the National Map of the American Re- 
public, or United States of North America, are, in point of accuracy and 
execution, fully equal, in every respect, to any Maps hitherto published in this 
country; while the price has been very materially reduced. 

The Map of the World, on Mercator's Projection, is the largest and most 
comprehensive ■work of the kind ever published in America. It is on six large 
sheets, and is engraved, printed, colored, and mounted in the most elegant 
manner. The size of the Map is six feet six inches from East to West, and 
four feet six inches from North to South. In its geographical details, this Map 
represents the surface of the earth as it really exists, according to the best au- 
thorities; the routes and tracks of the most celebrated travellers and naviga- 
tors, from the first voyage of Columbus, to that of Lieutenant Wilkes, are dis- 
tinctly exhibited, and all the recent Geographical and Nautical Discoveries in 
Africa, America, and Australia, and in the Pacific, Arctic, and Antarctic 
Oceans, are accurately represented — among the latter is the line of coast discov- 
ered by the United States Exploring Expedition, in the year 1840. Accompa- 
nying the Map of the World is a book of 600 pages, containing a Consulting 
Index, by the use of which any item represented on the Map may be readily 
ascertained ; also, geographical description of the various Empires, Kingdoms, 
Republics, &c, &c, on the Globe. Price eight dollars. 

The Reference and Distance Map of the United States is engraved on 
nine sheets, exhibiting an accurate representation of the American Republic, 
on a scale of 25 miles to an inch, comprising the various States, Counties, 
Townships, &c, in the Union ; the principal travelling routes, with the dis- 
tances in miles, from place to place ; and also the most important Canals, Rail- 
roads, &c. The size of this Map is six feet two inches from East to West, and 
four feet ten inches from North to South. The accompanying volume of 400 
pages, octavo, includes indexes of the Counties, Towns, Rivers, &c, in the 
United States, by the use of which, in connection with the Map, any place rep- 
resented on the latter may be easily found. There is likewise appended to 
the Accompaniment a general description of the United States, and the several 
States and Territories; a Synopsis of the Census of 1840, alphabetically ar- 
ranged, besides various items of useful and interesting Statistical information. 
Price seven dollars. 

The National Map of the American Republic, or United States op 
North America, is engraved on four sheets, and is unequaled for the beauty 
and distinctness of its lettering and engraving, and the richness of its col- 
oring. This Map measures four feet two inches from East to West, by three 
feet six inches from North to South. Surrounding the general Map are smaller 
Maps of thirty-two of the principal Cities and Towns, with their vicinities ; 
also, other useful matter. Price two dollars. 

Mitchell's Universal Atlas, containing Maps of the various Empires, 
Kingdoms, States and Republics of the World, with a special Map of each of 
the United States, Plans of Cities, &c, comprehended in seventy-three sheets, 
and forming a series of one hundred and seventeen Maps, Plans, and Sections. 

In order to bring this valuable and comprehensive Atlas more generally 
within the reach of the public, the price has been reduced from fourteen to ten 
dollars. The plates (costing more than twelve thousand dollars) have been much 
improved, and the edition now offered, is believed to be, according to its extent, 
correctness, and state of execution, the cheapest work of the kind ever pub- 
lished in the United States. 

S. AUGUSTUS MITCHELL. 



CHAMBERLAIN'S 

PRICE CATALOGUE. 



The following 1 catalogue of apparatus has been introduced, not so much 
to show where such instruments can be obtained, as to answer the frequent 
inquiry, What assortment of philosophical apparatus would be well adapted 
to our school or academy, and what would it cost ? 

In the lists have been marked such articles as constitute a well-arranged 
set of apparatus ; affording as many, if not more important illustrations in 
these branches of science than can be obtained by any other combination 
of instruments or sets of apparatus comprising the same number of articles. 
The economy of the selection and arrangement will be understood and 
appreciated by those familiar with the use of philosophical instruments, 
when we say that no less than twenty of the pneumatic instruments, in 
set marked 3 , for two hundred and fifty dollars, may be used in connection 
with the electric, adding some thirty-five good experiments in the latter 
branch of science ; while some fifteen of the pneumatic and several of the 
electric instruments may be transferred to, and used in connection with, the 
chemical apparatus, increasing considerably the number and importance of 
the experiments. 

It will be seen that the sets are composed chiefly of such instruments aa 
are absolutely essential to give a ready and clear illustration of the prin- 
ciples designed to be taught; that is, a machine is not employed when the 
idea can as well be given on the blackboard. On this point we find a great 
difference of opinion ; while one requires an apparatus, or fixture for each 
experiment, and thinks that a very incomplete assortment which does not 
include at least one instrument for each illustration, another perfects 
many experiments with a single instrument, or at least, secures three, four 
or more complete illustrations by the use of two simple instruments. 



332 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

In the selection of instruments composing the several sets, it has been 
sought to multiply experiments by bringing together such branches of 
science as admit of the instruments in each being properly constructed, 
and yet well adapted for illustrations in other departments of science ; for 
instance, with a well arranged set of pneumatic apparatus we have many 
instruments with which to effect not a few fine experiments in chemistry, 
electricity, &c. This may account for the seeming undue prominence 
given to these branches of science in making up of sets. 

We have little reluctance in offering to the notice, even of the common 
schools of our country, apparatus composed of such a variety of instru- 
ments, since the opinion now prevails, that the instructor should not only 
have the instruments, but possess the practical skill requisite to their proper 
use in illustrating and applying the principles of natural science. 

The numbers and figures following refer to " Chamberlain's Illustrated 
Price Catalogue of Philosophical Instruments," " Electric Illustrations and 
Experiments," " Illustrated Catalogue of Chemical Apparatus," " Pneumatic 
Experiments and Illustrations," &c, in which a description of the instru- 
ment is given, with some two hundred and fifty experiments in pneumatics 
and hydrostatics, and some in electrics. 

"Francis's Chemical Experiments" (more than two thousand Experi- 
ments) will be found a valuable accompaniment of the chemical apparatus ; 
while " Davis's Manual of Magnetism " treats of galvanism and its kindred 
topics, giving a list of experiments and , illustrations which commend it to 
all who would avail themselves of the aid afforded by the experience of a 
scientific mechanic. 

We may here state that the apparatus marked 3 , has been furnished by 
Mr. Chamberlain to the following grammar schools in the city of Boston, 
at a cost of about two hundred and fifty dollars each set. 



Franklin School, 
Brimmer " 
Otis " 

Phillips " 
Mather " 



Mayhew School, 
Smith " 

Dwight " 
Winthrop " 



The instruments marked 4 are such as have been approved and used in 
high schools and academies — cost about four hundred dollars — and have 
been furnished to the Normal Schools of Massachusetts, and others. The 
instruments marked 6 compose a set for the larger schools and academies, 
and have been furnished, among others, to the Putnam Free School, 
W. H. Wells, Principal, Newburyport, Mass.; Central High School, 
E. Smith, Principal, Cambridge, Mass. ; High School, Worcester, Mass. ; 
Monson Academy, Rev. C. Hammond ; High School, New Bedford, Mass. ; 
Boys' High School, Salem, Mass. ; and to schools and academies in Provi- 
dence, R. I., Philadelphia, Pa., Wilmington, Del., Hartford, Conn., Auburn, 
Ala., Burlington, N. J. ; Williston Seminary, Easthampton, Mass. 



APPARATUS. 




MECHANICS, &c. 



10 



Fig. 1. Glass Plates illustra- 
ting cohesive attraction, 3 
and 4. inch diameter, . ."i 2 1, 2 00 

Set of Tubes and stand, illus- 
trating capillary attraction, 

i 2 1 50, 2 00 

Pair of Lead Hemispheres and 
Handles, for cohesive at- 
traction, i 2 1 00, 1 50 

Fig. 2. Frame and six Ivory 
Balls, for collision, action 
and reaction, elasticity, &c. 7 6 00 

Frame and six Box-wood 

Balls, 12 3, H 00 

Figs. 3 & 4. A set of eight il- 
lustrations for centre of 
gravity, * 23677 00 

Fig. 5. Table with Spring Pis- 
tols and Ball, illustrating 
compound forces, &c. 6 00 & 8 00 

Fig. 6. Whirling Machine, 
with eight illustrations of 
central and centrifugal for- 
ces, 78 00 

Fig. 7. Atwood's machine for 
the laws of falling bodies, 

50 00 & 100 00 
Fig. 8. A set of Mechanical 
Powers arranged in a ma- 
hogany frame three and a 
half feet long and three feet 
high ; each lever is eighteen 
inches long; four sets of 
pulleys strung with silk cord 
and well balanced; brass 
weights from 1 to 16 ounces ; 
screw and lever with nut; 
screw as an inclined plane ; 
ship capstan; wheel and 
axle; wedge in two parts; 
inclined plane with car- 
riage ; movable fulcrum and 
lever, for combining the 
power of screw and lever, 2 3 6 7 35 00 



No. Priw. 

11. Mechanical Powers, larger 

size, with five sets largei 
size pulleys ; brass weights 
from 1 to 48 oz., two of each ; 
wheel and axle, has seven 
graduations, and runs on 
friction rollers, $50 00 

12. Mechanical Powers, arranged 

in roseioood frame, brass le- 
vers ; brass wheel with steel 
axle, has gear and endless 
screw and crank attached to 
the wheel and axle ; is in all 
respects a highly finished 
apparatus, 100 00 

13. Hunter's Screw, in frame, 6 00 

Note. — The straps to all the pulleys are 
unlike those generally used with philosophical 
instruments. They are of cast brass, tastefully 
swelled and finished, and enclose the pulleys, 
which turn on small steel pins, and are sepa- 
rated one from the other by partitions, which 
not only sustain the centre pin, but prevent 
the difficulty which occurs from the cords 
running off. 

OPTICS. 

14. Fig. 9. A set of Lenses two 

inches in diameter, edges 
finished, in box, 12678 00 

15. A set of Lenses two and a 

half inch, 10 00 

16. A set of Lenses mounted, 

each lens in a Ring or 
Holder, which may be ex- 
tended, raised, or lowered, as 
the experiment or illustra- 
tion may require, 12 & 15 00 

Section of six lenses, 4 00 

17. Prisms, four, six, and eight 

inch, 12672, & 3 00 

Mounted Prisms, 2 & 5 00 

18. Fig. 10. Compound Micro- 

scope, with one, two, and 



334 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



No. Price. 

three ivory slides, four ob- 
jects on each ; three powers, 
and the common fixtures 
and conveniences for using ; 
is brass mounted and neatly 
cased, 2 #10 00 

19. Compound Microscope, with 

four powers, which may be 
used separately or com- 
bined ; three slides with 
twelve objects, as No. 18; 
slides adjusted to the focus 
by rack and pinion ; the usu- 
al fixtures and a list of the 
objects are cased with the 
instruments, 6 12 00 

20. Compound Microscope, large 

size, and mounted on brass 
tripod stand, has common 
fixtures, 7 15 00 

21. Compound Microscope, large 

size, with six powers ; six 
slides with transparent and 
opaque objects ; a large con- 
densing lens and other fix- 
tures in keeping with a first- 
rate instrument, 25 00 

22. A large tripod-mounted Com- 

pound Microscope, with hor- 
izontal joint ; six powers, 
twenty-four objects, and 
eighteen pieces for general 
use with the instrument, ... 42 00 
There is accompanying, an accurate 
copperplate, illustrative of each micro- 
scope, with all its parts, and a minute 
description of their uses. 

23. Models of the Human Eye, in 

three parts, 12 00 

Fig. 11. The Eye in all its 
parts, (is four inches in di- 
ameter,) and dissectible, 
showing the Cornea, Iris, 
Ciliary Process, Choroid Tu- 
nic, Crystalline Lens, Vitre- 
ous Humor, Retina, Black 
Pigment, Optic nerve, &c. 

Fig. 12. The Eye in its sock- 
et with the muscles. 

Fig. 13. The Eye with rays 
of light passing from an ob- 
ject and forming the image 
on the retina. The object 
and image are movable, 
showing the cause of " long 
sight," " short sight," and 
"perfect sight." 

Fig. 14. Section view of Fig. 
11. 

ASTRONOMY, &c. 

24. Fig. 15. Astronomical Tele- 

scope on brass stand, 2 1-4 
inch achromatic object glass, 
two eye-pieces or powers and 
sun-glasses, forty-six inches 
long, with four draws out, in 



No. Prise 
a polished velvet lined ma- 
hogany case, $ 50 00 

25. Telescope, large size ; 47 inch 

brass tube ; 3 inch achro- 
matic object glass ; one eye- 
piece for Terrestrial and two 
for Celestial objects; rack 
and pinion adjustment for 
eye-piece ; cased as No. 24; 
a superior and cheap instru- 
ment, at 150 00 

26. Fig. 16. Reflecting Tele- 

scope, five and a half feet 
long, mounted five and a half 
feet high on tripod stand, 
with vertical and horizontal 
motion by micrometer-gear 
and pinion, as represented in 
the cut, seven inch reflec- 
tor ; three small reflectors ; 
three eye-pieces and Finder,300 00 

27. Fig. 18. School Orrery, motion 

given by a crank, J 7 00 

School Orrery, larger size, 
better finish, motion given to 
the moon around the earth,. 2 10 00 

28. Fig. 19. Spring Orrery, gold gilt 

planets ; brass arms ; 5 inch 
sun ; stands two feet high ; 
spreads 3£ feet from Her- 
schel to Saturn ; motion to 
the moon round the earth, 6 " 25 00 
If motion is given to Jupiter's 

moons, 35 00 

29. Fig. 20. Spring Orrery; brass 

mounted ; extra finish ; mo- 
tion as above, 45 00 

30. Fig. 21. Seasons Machine, 

with five inch sun and three 
inch earth ; motions all cor- 
rect ; giving the earth on its 
axis, round the sun, inclina- 
tion to the north, aphelion 
and perihelion position ; 
moon round the earth ; 
moon's nodes ; sun on his 
axis, &c, &c.,... i 2 ^ &12«0 

31. Fig. 22. Chamberlain's im- 

proved high mounted Globes, 
13 inch diameter ; stands 48 
inches high, on iron legs, 
neatly bronzed, with cas- 
tors; the pedestal or pillar 
is of mahogany, and receives 
the hub and shaft on which 
the Globe is mounted. This 
arrangement admits of a 
horizontal rotary motion to 
the whole globe, meridian 
and horizon. Price per pair, 7 40 00 

32. Thirteen inch Globes, low 

mounted ; pair, e 30 00 

33. Ten inch Globes, high mount- 

ed, pair, 6 30 00 

34. Ten inch Globes, low mount- 

ed, pair, 18 00 

35. Six inch Globes, low mounted, 

pair, 2 10 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATAGOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



335 



No. Price. 

36. Five inch terrestrial, i #2 00 

37. Fig. 17. Magic Lantern, with 

improved Solar Lamp and 
Reflector — condensing Len- 
ses four inch diameter, will 
spread a two and half inch 
painting clear and distinct 
on a screen twelve feet di- 
ameter, 6 7 25 00 

List of Slides adapted to the above 
lantern, and illustrative of subjects, 
as follows : — 

NATURAL HISTORY. 

In 56 Sliders. 
Class I. — MAMMALIA.— 24 Sliders. 

Slider I. 
Human Skull — Orang-Outang — Long- 
armed Ape — Variegated Baboon. 
Slider II. 
Dog-faced Baboon — Proboscis Monkey 

— Fair Monkey — Coaita, or Four- 
fingered Monkey. 

Slider III. 
Slow Lemur — Ring-tailed Macauco — 
Flying Lemur — Spectre Bat. 
Slider IV. 
Peruvian Bat — Three-toed Sloth — 
Great Ant-eater — Porcupine Ant- 
eater. 

Slider V. 

Little Ant-eater — Duck-billed Platypus 

— Long-tailed Manis — Three-banded 
Armadillo. 

Slider VI. 
Six-banded Armadillo — Rhinoceros — 
Elephant — Female Elephant and 
Young. 

Slider VII. 
Sukotyro — Walrus — Common Seal — 
Crested Seal. 

Slider VIII. 
Newfoundland Dog — "Wolf — Striped 
Hyaena — Fennec. 

Slider IX. 
Lion — Lioness and Cubs — Tiger — 
Leopard. 

Slider X. 
Ounce — Serval — Ocelot Cat — Lynx. 

Slider XI. 
Ichneumon and Civet Cat — Polecat and 
Ferret — Striated Weasel and Chin- 
chilli. 

Slider XII. 
Otter — Polar Bear — Common Bear — 
Opossum. 

Slider XIII. 
Kangaroo — Mole and Radiated Shrew 

— Mulluca and Common Hedge-hogs. 



Slider XIV. 
Porcupine — Brazilian Porcupine — Va 
negated and Spotted Cavies -<- Beaver. 
Slider XV. 
White Mouse and Canada Rat — Varie- 
gated and Maryland Marmot — Com- 
mon and Flying Squirrels. 

Slider XVI. 
Gilt-tailed and Garden Dormice — Jer 
boas — Hare and Syrian Hyrax. 

Slider XVII. 

Dromedary — Camel — Lama — Thibet 
Musk. 

Slider XVIII. 
Elk — Rein Deer — Fallow Deer — Doe. 

Slider XIX. 
Spotted Axis — Camelopard — Common. 
Antelope — Female Antelope. 

Slider XX. 
Nilghau — Ibex — Angora Goat — Argali 

Slider XXI. 
Cretan Sheep — African Sheep — Bison 

— Zebu. 

Slider XXII. 
Musk Ox — Yak — Buffalo — Indian Ox. 

Slider XXIII. 
Zebra — Hippopotamus — Tapir — Baby- 
roussa. 

Slider XXIV. 
Narwhal — Common Whale — Porpoise 

— Skeleton of Porpoise. 45 00 

Class II. — BIRDS. — 7 Sliders. 

Slider I. 
Condor — Fulvous Vulture — Golden Ea- 
gle — Barn Owl. 

Slider II. 
Cockatoo — Scaly-breasted Parakeet — ■ 
Green Toucan — Rhinoceros Bird. 

Slider III. 
Vaillantian Bird of Paradise — Red- 
throated Humming Bird — Summer 
Duck — Common Pelican. 

Slider IV. 
Patagonian Penguin — Red Flamingo — 
Rose-colored Spoonbill — Agami Her- 
on. 

Slider V. 

White Stork — Common Crane — Nu- 

midian Crane — Chestnut Jaccana. 

Slider VI. 

Common Ostrich — Southern Apteryx — 

Galeated Cassowary — Hooded Dodo. 

Slider VII. 
Peacock — Argus Pheasant — Crowned 
Pigeon — Tailor Birds and Nest. 14 00 



336 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Class III. —AMPHIBIA.— 4 Sliders. 

Slider I. 
Snake Tortoise — Green Turtle — Horned 
Frog — Pipa. 

Slider II. 
Flying Dragon — Crocodile — Dracaena 
Lizard — Basilisk. 

Slider III. 
American Guana — Chameleon — Siren 
— Banded Rattlesnake. 
Slider IV. 
Great Boa — Spectacle Snake — Crimson- 
sided Snake — Painted Snake. 8 00 



Class IV. — FISHES. — 5 Sliders. 
Slider I. 
Muraena — Electrical Gymnotus — Chor- 
dated Stylephorus — Gemmeous Drag- 
onet. 

Slider II. 
John Doree — Turbot — Angle Fish — 
Rostrated Chaetodon. 

Slider III. 
Pleat-nosed Chaetodon — Long-finned 
Chaetodon — Flying Gurnard — Tele- 
scope Carp. 

Slider IV. 
Horned Trunk-fish — Pyramidal Trunk- 
fish — Short Sun-fish — Sea-horse — 
Pipe-fish. 

Slider V. 
Foliated Pipe-fish — Harlequin Angler — 
Hammer-headed Shark — Giorna Ray. 
10 00 

Class V.— INSECTS. — 8 Sliders. 

J\T. B. Those, marked with a * are magnified ; 

the others are most of them under the natural 

size. 

Slider I. 
Stag Beetle and *Curculio Bacchus — 

Kangaroo Beetle and *Pausus Micro- 

cephalus — *Asparagus Beetle and 

Cantharis Faciata. 

Slider II. 
*Curculio Scropularia and *Lampyris 

Festiva — "Water Beetle and Larvae — 

Buprestis Ocellata and *Attelabus Me- 

lanurus. 

Slider III. 
Great Locust — Chinese Lantern-fly and 

Walking Leaf— Mole Cricket and *Ci- 

mex Prasinus (two views.) 
Slider IV. 
Telemachus Butterfly, with Caterpillar 

and Chrysalis — Sphinx Ocellata, with 

Caterpillar and Chrysalis — Atlas Moth. 
Slider V. 
Dragon-fly and Larva — Nest of the 

Humble Bee — * Working and *Female 

Ants. 



Slider VI. 

*Golden Fly and Ichneumon Ramidulus 
— *Sheep Gad-fly and *Diopsis Ich- 
neumonea — *Human Louse and *Lice 
from different Birds. 

Slider VII. 

Termites, or "White Ants, male and fe- 
male — a magnified view of a Termite 
in the Pupa state (called a soldier ;) in 
the upper part of the slider is a picture 
representing a distant view of the Hab- 
itations of the "White Ants, in the fore- 
ground of which are several Laborers 
and a Soldier, of the natural size — a 
*Flea, with the Egg, Larva, and Pupa. 
Slider VIII. 

*A Cheese Mite and Garden Spider— 
Cancer Mantis — Scolopendra Morsi- 
tans. 16 00 

Class VI. — WORMS. — 8 Sliders. 
Slider I. 
Serrated Tape-worm, natural size, with a 
separate view of the Head, highly mag- 
nified — Nais Serpentina, magnified — 
Sea Anemone — Brown Holothuria. 
Slider II. 
Phosphoric Pyrosoma — Eight-armed 
Cuttle-fish — Balloon Cuttle-fish — Me- 
dusa Pulmo. 

Slider III. 
Medusa's Head Star-fish — Duck Barna- 
cle — Great Sea Pinna — Iceland Scal- 
lop. 

Slider IV. 
Paper Nautilus, with the animal seated 
in the shell — Pearly Nautilus, with 
the inhabitant — Tortoise-shell Lim- 
pet, and Veined Volute. 
Slider V. 
Snow-flaked Volute and Waved Turbo — 
Corded Murex — Anguina Serpula and 
Serpula Vermicularis, with the animal. 
Slider VI. 
Green Polypes, natural size and magni- 
fied — Sea-bristle Coralline, magnified 
to show its polype heads — Tubularia 
Reptans, magnified — Phosphoric Sea- 
Pen. 

Slider VII. 
Red Coral, with a small branch slightly 
magnified to show its polype heads — 
Thick-armed Gorgonia — Cinnamon 
Madrepore — Madrepora, Patella, and 
Meandrites. 

Slider VIII. 
Vorticella Racemosa and a group of 
Wheel Animals — a group of Bell Ani 
mals and a group of the Vorticella Ur 
ceolaris and the Sun Animal — groups 
of the Cercaria Mutabilis, Globe Ani- 
mals, and Paste Eels. 
N. B. The animals in this Slider are 
Microscopic Animalcules. 16 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



337 



BOTANICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 

In 14 Sliders, with Compendium. 
Slider I. 

1. Cellular Tissue. 

2. Cellular Ducts. 

3. Woody Fibre. 

4. Spiral Vessels. 

Slider II. 

5. Spiral Vessels in Leaf. 

6. Vascular Ducts. 

7. Forms of Roots. 

8. Forms of Stem. 

Slider III. 

9. Section of Exogenous Stem. 

10. Section of Sassafras Wood. 

11. Sections of Endogenous Stem. 

Slider IV. 

12. Fern Stem. 

13. Forms of Leaves. 

14. Leaf of Gleditsia. 

15. Pitchers of Nepenthes, &e. 

Slider V. 

16. Pitcher of Dischidia. 

17. Cuticle and Stomata. 

18. Section of Apple Leaf. 

19. Section of Oleander Leaf. 

Slider VI. 

20. Forms of Stamens. 

21. Structure of Pistil. 

22. Monstrous Carpels. 

23. Structure of Seed-vesseL 

Slider VII. 

24. Proeess of Fertilization. 

25. Germination of Seed. 

26. Algje : (Sea-weeds.) 

27. Lichen : Iceland Moss. 

Slider VIII. 

28. Fungus : Amanita. 

29. Rafflesia Arnoldi. 

30. Chara Flexilis. 

31. Moss : Bryum caespiticum. 

Slider IX. 

32. Tree-fern. 

33. Endogens : Saccharum officinale, 

(Sugar-cane. 1 ) 

34. Phoenix daetylifera, (Date Palm.) 

35. Colehieum autumnale, (Meadow Saf- 

fron.) 

Slider X. 

36. Zingiber officinale, (Ginger Plant.) 

37. Exogens : Zamia horrida. 

38. Atropa belladonna, (Deadly Night 

Shade.) 

Slider XL 

39. Linaria communis, (Snap-Dragon.) 

40. Convolvulus major. 

41. Erieese, (Heaths.) 

Slider XII. 

42. Anthemis pyrethrum, (Pellitory.) 

43. Tamarindus Indica, (Tamarind.) 

44. Camelia Japonica. 

22 



Slider XIII. 

45. Passifiora magniflora, (Grenadilla.) 

46. Cardamine pratensis, (Lady's Smock.) 

47. Ficus earica, (Fig.) 

Slider XIV. 

48. Cactus speciosissima. 

49. Ligusticum Scoticum. 

50. Myristiea moschata, (Nutmeg. )30 06 

SELECT SCRIPTURE SUBJECTS. 
In 12 Sliders. 
Slider I. 
Adam and Eve driven out of Paradise. 

Gen. iii. 24. 
Hagar and Ishmael . . . Gen. xxi. 14. 
Isaac blessing Jacob . . Gen. xxvii. 27. 

Slider IL 
Joseph sold into Egypt. 

Gen. xxxvii. 28. 
Joseph meeting his Father. 

Gen. 1. 1. 
The finding of Moses. .Exod. ii. 5. 

Slider III. 
The Ark of the Covenant. 

Exod. xxv. 10. 
The Dress of the High Priest. 

Exod. xxviii. 4. 
The Altar of Incense.. Exod. xxx. 1. 

Slider IV. 
The Altar of Burnt-Offering. 

Exod. xxvii. 1. 
An Aaronite or Scribe. 

Exod. xxviii. 40, 
The Golden Candlestick. 

Exod. xxv. 31. 
Slider V. 
Return of the Spies . ..Num. xiii. 23. 
The Brazen Serpent. . .Num. xxi. 9. 
Balaam and his Ass. . .Num. xxii. 22. 

Slider VI. 
Samson and the Lion..«7w^. xiv. 6. 
Presentation of Samuel. 

1st Sam. i. 28. 
Samuel in the Temple. 1st Sam. iii. 10. 
Elijah fed by Ravens. .1st Kings, xvii. 6. 

Slider VII. 
David and Goliath.. . .1st Sam. xvii. 5L 
David dancing before the Ark. 

2d Sam. vi. 14. 
Nathan reproving David. 

2d Sam. xii. 7. 
Slider VIII. 

The Annunciation Luke i. 28. 

The Birth of Christ. ..Luke ii. 16. 
Christ brought to the Temple. 

Luke ii. 22. 
Slider IX. 
The Flight into Egypt. 

Matt. ii. 13. 

The Holy Family Mark i. 

Christ and the Woman of Samaria. 

John vt. 7. 



338 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Slider X. 
Christ stilling the Tempest. 

Matt. viii. 24. 
The Good Samaritan. .Luke x. 30. 
The Lord of the Vineyard and Laborer. 
Matt. xx. 12. 
Slider XL 
The Return of the Prodigal Son. 

Luke xv. 20. 
Trial of Peter's Faith. .Matt. xiv. 29. 
Herodias with the Head of John the 

Baptist Mark vi. 28. 

Slider XII. 

The Crucifixion John xix. 30. 

The "Women at the Sepulchre. 

Mark xvi. 5. 

The Resurrection Matt, xxviii. 9. 

The Disciples at Emmaus. 

Luke xxiv. 31. 

25 00 
PORTRAITS OF KINGS AND 
QUEENS OF ENGLAND. 

From "William the Conqueror to 
Victoria. 

In 9 Sliders. 
Slider I. 
"William the Conqueror. — "William II. — 
Henry I. — Stephen. 

Slider II. 
Henry II. — Richard I. — John. — Hen- 
ry III. 

Slider III. 
Edward I. —Edward II. —Edward III. 

— Richard II. 

Slider IV. 
Henry IV., of Bolingbroke. — Henry V., 
of Monmouth. — Henry VI., of Wind- 
sor. — Edward IV. 

Slider V. 
Edward V. — Richard III. — Henry VII. 

— Henry VIII. 

Slider VI. 
Edward VI. — Mary I. — Elizabeth.— 
James I. 

Slider VII. 
Charles I. — Charles II. — James II. 

Slider VIII. 

"William III. and Mary II. — Anne, of 

the Stuart family. — George I., of 

Hanover. — George II. 

Slider IX. 

George III. — George IV. — "William IV. 

— Victoria. 15 00 

VLEVVS OF PUBLIC BUILDINGS, 

&c. 

In 4 Sliders. 

Slider I. 

Tiew of Saint Paul's Cathedral, London. 



— The Pavilion, at Brighton. 8outh- 
wark Bridge, London. 

Slider II. 
View of Westminster Abbey. — View of 
the Cataract of Niagara. — Waterloo 
Bridge, London. 

Slider III. 

Saint Peter's Church, at Rome — Fin- 

gal's Cave — The Pantheon, at Paris. 

Slider IV. 
View of Mount St. Michael, Cornwall. — 
The Military Hospital, Paris. — View 
of the Island of Staffa. 8 00 

ASTRONOMICAL DIAGRAMS. 

In Eleven Sliders, packed in a Box, 
with a Description. 

No. Slider I. 

1. System of Ptolemy. 

2. Copernicus. 

3. Tycho Brahe. 

4. Newton. 

Slider II. 

5. Telescopic View of the Moon. 

6. Ditto of Jupiter. 
7- ■ Saturn. 

Slider III. 

8. Comparative Sizes of the Planets. 

9. Comparative Distances of the Planets. 

10. Orbit of a Comet. 

11. The Comet of 1811. 

Slider IV. 

12. Signs of the Zodiac. 

13. Inclination of the Planets' Orbits. 

14. Direct and Retrograde Motion. 

Slider V. {Lever, movable.] 

15. Rotundity of the Earth. 

Slider VI. 

16. The Seasons. 

17. Phases of the Moon. 

18. The Earth's Shadow. 

Slider VII. 

19. Cause of the Sun's Eclipse. 

20. Ditto Moon's ditto. 

21. Inclination of the Moon's Orbit. 

Slider VIII. {movable.) 

22. Eclipse of the Sun, with a Transit of 

Venus. 

Slider IX. {movable.') 

23. Eclipse of the Moon. 

Slider X. 

24. Spring Tide at New Moon. 

25. Ditto Full Moon. 

26. Neap Tide. 

Slider XI. 

27. The Constellation Orion. 

28. Ursa Major. 

29. Various Nebulae. 

30. A Portion of the Milky "Way. 6 ? 20 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP APPARATUS. 



339 



CONSTELLATIONS. 

In 6 Sliders. 

Their situation with regard to the North 
Pole is denoted by an Arrow. 



Aries ■ 



Slider I. 
■ Taurus — Gemini ■ 



■ Cancer. 



Slider II. 
Leo — Virgo — Libra — Scorpio. 

Slider III. 
Sagittarius — Capricornus — Aquarius — 
Pisces. 

Slider IV. 
Draco and Ursa Minor — Cepheus and 
Cassiopea — Andromeda and Triangu- 
la — Auriga. 

Slider V. 
Perseus and Caput Medusa? — Bootes and 
Canes Venetici — Hercules and Cer- 
berus — Cygnus and Lyra. 

Slider VI. 
Antinous and Aquila — Ophiucus and 
Serpens — Canis Major and Minor — 
Cetus, $9 00 

ASTRONOMICAL DIAGRAMS. 

In a Set of 30 Three-Inch Sliders, Double 
Glass, each Diagram framed sepa/rate. 

■Bo. 

1. System of Ptolemy. 

2. Copernicus. 

;3. Tycho Brahe. 

4. Newton. 

5. Telescopic View of trie Moon. 

5. Ditto at three different periods of its 

increase. 
5. Ditto of Venus, with Phases, (three 

Views.) 
5. Ditto of Mars. 
S. Ditto of Jupiter. 

7. Ditto of Saturn. 

8. Comparative Sizes of the Planets. 

8. Ditto, the colored Circle representing 

the Sun. 

9. Comparative Distances of the Planets. 

10. Orbit of a Comet. 

11. Comet of 1811. 

12. Signs of the Zodiac. 

13. Inclination of the Planets' Orbits. 

14. Direct and Retrograde Motion. 

16. The Seasons. 

17. Phases of the Moon. 

18. The Earth's Shadow. 

19. Cause of the Sun's Eclipse. 

20. Ditto Moon's ditto. 

21. Inclination of the Moon's Orbit. 
27- The Constellation Orion. 

28. Ursa Major. 

29. Various Nebula?. 

30. A Portion of the Milky Way. 

30. A Diagram to show Meridians, Par- 
allels, and Circles. 

SO. A Diagram, showing the various 
Zones,, J3G 00 



REVOLVING ASTRONOMICAL 
DIAGRAMS. 

THE MOTION PRODUCED BY RACK-WORK. 

In a Set of Nine Sliders, packed in a Box, 
with a Lock. 

Slider I. 
The Solar System, showing the Revolu- 
tion of all the Planets, with their Sat- 
ellites, round the Sun. 

Slider IL 
The Earth's Annual Motion round the 
Sun, showing the Parallelism of its 
Axis, thus producing the Seasons. 

Slider IIL 
This Diagram illustrates the cause of 
Spring and Neap Tides,, and shows the 
Moon's Phases,, during its Revolution. 

Slider IV 

This Diagram illustrates the Apparent 
Direct and Retrograde Motion of Ve- 
nus or Mercury, and also its Stationary 
Appearanee. 

Slider V 

A Diagram to prove the Earth's Rotun 
dity, by a Ship sailing round the Globes 
and a line drawn from the eye of an 
observer placed on an eminence. 

Slider VI. 
This Diagram illustrates the Eccentric 
Revolution of a Comet round the Sun, 
and shows the appearance of its Tail at 
different points of its Orbit. 
Slider VII. 
The Diurnal Motion of the Earth, show- 
ing the Rising and Setting of the Sun, 
illustrating the cause of Day and Night, 
'by the Earth's Rotation upon its Axis. 
Slider VIII. 
This Diagram illustrates the Annual Mo- 
tion of the Earth round the Sun, with 
the Monthly Lunations of the Moon. 
Slider IX. 
This Diagram shows the various Eclipses 
of the Sun with the Transit of Venus^ 
the Sun appears as seen through a 
Telescope, $40 0® 

PNEUMATICS. 

No. Fric«. 

1. Fig. 1. Air Pump, (Chamber- 

lain's American;) rose-wood 
frame, polished ; barrel, 13 
■by 4£ inches ; large plate, 15 
inches ; small do., 6 inches ; 
three gauges, .#150 0$ 

2. Air Pump, superb mahogany 

frame, polished ; barrel 13 by 
4J inches ; plate 15 inches ; 
barometer gauge ; otherwise 
as No. 1, 125m 

3. Air Pump, plain mahogany 



340 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



No. Pn«- 

frame, varnished ; plate 13 
inches ; otherwise as No. 
2, , #100 00 

4. Fig. 2. Air Pump, rose-wood 

frame, polished ; barrel 12 
by 4 inches ; plate 12 inches ; 
barometer gauge, 100 00 

5. Air Pump, extra finished ; rose- 

wood frame, polished; plate 
12 inches ; barrel 11 by 3£ 
inches; barometer gauge,. , 7 85 00 

6. Air Pump, mahogany frame, 

varnished ; plate 12 inches ; 
barrel 11 by 3i ; common 
finish, 67 75 00 

7. Fig. 3. Air Pump, two barrels, 

7 by 2 inches ; plate 8 inches ; 
works with double lever ; 
mahogany basement, 35 00 

8. Air Pump, as above mounted, 

on rose-wood basement, with 
parts extra finished, 40 00 

9. Air Pump, as above mounted, 

on a splendid serpentine 
basement, extra finished in 
every particular, 45 00 

10. Fig. 4. Air Pump, one barrel, 

7 by 2 inches ; works with 
lever ; plate 8 inches, 3 25 00 

11. Fig. 5. Air Pump, English 

form; two barrels, two plates, 

8 and 4 inch; works with 

rack and pinion, 40 00 

12. Fig. 6. Air Pump, two barrels; 

one plate, 8 inch, 25 00 

13. Fig. 7. Air Pump, plate, 6inch; 

one barrel, 7 by 1$ inch ; pis- 
ton works by a T handle, . . 10 00 

14. Fig. 8. Chamberlain's Double 

Acting Exhauster and Con- 
denser ; barrel 7 by 1^- inches, 7 8 00 

15. Fig. 9. Condensing Syringe ; 

barrel 7 by 1£, 3 5 00 

16. Fig. 10. Stop-cock, large screw; 

3 inch, #1 00; 3£ inch, $1 25; 
4inch,#150;4£inch,#200; 
5inch, 2 50 

17. Fig. 11. Stop-cock, small screw, 

70 cents ; 1J inch, 80 cents ; 
2 inch, 90 cents. 

18. Fig. 12. Connecting-Screw; 

fits pump-plate 3456750 

19. Fig. 13. Double Female Screw- 

Coupling, s ■» 56 7 50 

20. Fig. 14. Guard-Screw ; fits 

pump-plate, 3 4 5 6 7 50 

21. Fig. 15. Screw- Plug, for closing 

brass caps, &c, 3 4 5 6 7 50 

22. Fig. 16. Double Female Coup- 

ling, large and small screw, 3 4 56 7 50 

23. Fig. 17. Gallows-Connecter 

and Tip ; male screws, 1 25 

24» Fig. 18. Gallows-Connecter 

and Tip ; female screws,... 1 25 

25. Fig. 19. Flexible Hose and 

Screw-Connecter, four feet,. 2 00 

26. Fig. 20. Sliding-Rod and Brass 

Plate, with fixtures j 5 00 



No. rate. 

27. Fig. 21. Sliding-Rod and Pack- 

ing-Screw, with regulating 
Binding-Screws, 7 2 00 

28. Fig. 22. Sliding-Rod and Pack- 

ing-Screw, with Ball-Han- 
dle ; (used with Electrics,) 3 * 56 ! 50 

29. Fig. 23. Swelled Bell-Glasses ; 

six sizes ; one gallon, #1 25 ; 
two galls., $2 00 ; four galls., 
#4 00; eight galls., $7 00; 
ten galls., #8 00 ; twelve 
galls., $10 00; and ground 
to fit the six different size 
pump-plates. 

30. Fig. 24. Swelled Open-Top 

Bell-Glasses ; six sizes ; ca- 
pacities and dimensions as 
No. 29 ; one gallon, $2 00 ; 
two galls., $3 50 ; four galls., 
#4 506 . eight gal i s . } 7 $8 00 ; 
ten galls., #9 00 ; twelve 
galls., 12 00 

31. Fig. 25. Plain Bell-Glasses; 

eight sizes ; half pint, 30 
cents ; pint, 50 cents ; quart, 
75 cents ; two quarts, $1 00 ; 
gallon, $2 00 ; two galls., 
|3 00 ; four galls., #4 00 ; 
six galls., 5 50 

32. Fig. 26. Bell-Glasses with 

Glass Stoppers ; eight sizes ; 
half pint, 40 cents ; pint, 60 
cents ; quart, $1 00 ; two 
quarts, %\ 25; three quarts, 
$1 50; gallon, $2 25; six 
quarts, $3 00 ; two galls.,.. 4 00 

33. Fig. 27. Bell-Glasses with brass 

Screw-Caps, to receive a 
stop-cock, connecter, slid- 
ing-rod, &c. ; six sizes ; two 
quarts, $1 50 ; three quarts, 
$2 00 ; four quarts, $2 50 ; 
six quarts, 3 6 $3 00 ; eight 
quarts, 6 7 #4 50 ; ten quarts, 5 50 

34. Fig. 28. Cylindrical Open-Top 

Bell-Glass, with Glass Cap ; 
two quarts, §2 00 ; four 
quarts, $3 00 ; eight quarts, 5 00 

35. Fig. 29. Hand Glass, to show 

pressure of the air, 3 4 76 

36. Fig. 30. Bladder Glass; may 

be used as a Hand Glass, 5 6 7 1 00 

37. Fig 31. Bladder-Cup, Cap, and 

Cock, to use with Condenser 
and Condensing Chamber, 
or under a Bell-Glass ; is 
used for the Sheet Rubber 
experiments, &c, 345672 00 

38. Fig. 32. Cupping Glass, with 

Cap and Cock, 1 50 

39. Fig. 33. Hemispherical Cups, 

with Cock, Handles, and 
Stand ; 5 inch diameter,. . . 67 7 00 

40. Hemispherical Cups, with 

Cock, Handles, and Stand; 

3 inch diameter, 345 5 00 

41. Fig. 35. Stand, Lever, and Ful- 

crum, used with Hemi- 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



341 



No. Price. 

spherical Cups, for weighing 

a column of air, 7 5 00 

42. Fig. 37. Apparatus illustrating 

the upward pressure of the 
atmosphere ; Glass Cylin- 
der, 4^ inches diameter, 12 
long ; with Piston ; 5 inch 
brass plate, Hose, and 
Screws, Strap for connecting 
weight, and Tripod Stand, 
three feet high, 12 00 

43. Upward Pressure Apparatus ; 

Glass Cylinder, 3£ by 10 
inches ; 4 inch Brass Plate ; 
Hose, Strap, and 30 inch 
Stand, 67 9 00 

44. Fig. 38. Upward Pressure Ap- 

paratus ; Cylinder, 3 by 9 
inches ; Brass Plate, 3£ 
inches ; Hose, Strap, and 
Stand, ..3< 5 6 00 

45. Fig. 39. Brass Cylinder and 

Piston, with Weight, to il- 
lustrate the power of ex- 
panding air, 4 00 

46. Fig. 40. Expansion Fountain 

for vacuum, or by condensa- 
tion, 4 00 

47- Fig. 41. Revolving Jet in vacuo, 
with a stand. This is fig- 
ured and arranged for sev- 
eral experiments, and re- 
ferred to in some ten or 
twelve following, 3 4 567 1 25 

48. Fig. 42. Bursting Squares, for 

expansion or pressure ; per 
dozen, boxed, . .... 4567 1 50 

49. Fig. 42. Wire Guard, for Burst- 

ing Squares, 4 75 5 6 7 1 00 

50. Fig. 43. Brass Cap Valve, for 

bursting Squares, 4 5 6 7 25 

51. Fig. 44. Revolving Jet and 

Fountain in vacuo, 2 50 

52. Revolving Jet and Fountain in 

vacuo, with valves by which 
the water returns to the 
chamber as the air is let into 
the bell-glass, and the ex- 
periment repeated, 3 50 

53. Fig. 45. Fountain in vacuo, 

the treble globe, or liquid 

transferrer, 7 3 00 

Fig. 46. Explains Revolving 
Jet by external pressure, &c. 

54. Fig. 47- Condensing Chamber, 

&c, arranged for experi- 
ments, and figured for ex- 
planations ; Chamber and 

Cock.......... 345673 50 

Cock, with interior and exte- 
rior jets, 4 567 2 00 

Water-Pan and Tube, 6, * s 6 7 75 

Paradox Tunnel, Jet, and 

Balls, < 5 6 7 1 50 

65. Fig. 48. Condensation Gauge 
and Stand, syphon form, in 
glass case ; two sizes, 7 2 50 
and 3 00 



No. Price. 

58. Fig. 49. Air Gun-Barrel, 3456 

100 and 7 1 25 

57. Fig. 50. Plate Paradox and 

Disc, 4=1 00 and „... 67 l 25 

58. Fig. 51. Pipe and Ball Para- 

dox,45i 00 and s?j 25 

59. Fig. 52 Flexible Hose and 

Jet, 345671 00 

60. Fig. 53. Brass Jet, for water, 

air, gas, &c, 3 4 5 6 50 cents and 7 75 
Fig. 54. Revolving Jet and 

Stand, 345671 25 

Globe Jet; see Exp,15, page 25, 125 
Revolving Stand, for Condens- 

sing Chamber, &c, 1 25 

Single straight Jet, 1 00 

61. Reaction, or Revolving Wheels, 

#1 25 and 2 00 

62. Double Revolving Jet, 2 00 

63. Fig. 55. Improved Glass Con- 

densing Chamber ; capacity, 
two quarts ; one inch thick ; 
Screw-Cap and Stop-Cock, 7 10 00 

Pressure Gauge, for experi- 
ments with Glass Chamber, 7 1 00 

Square Vials, for experiment 
with condensed air in glass 
chamber, per dozen, 7 1 00 

Horizontal Connecting Piece, 

for glass chamber, 75 

Bell, for condensed air in glass 

chamber, 7 1 00 

64. Fig. 56. Large Copper Con- 

densing Chamber, ten inches 
diameter, with Stop-Cock 

and Interior Jet, 10 00 

Fig. 57. Long Jet, for experi- 
ments with fountains, 50 

65. Fig. 58. Artificial Fountain, 

with Cock, Jets, and Stand, 
3 453 00 and 675 00 

66. Fig. 59. Bolthead, #1 00 and 7 1 50 
Glass Jars, for various experi- 
ments, 3 25 cents, and. . . 4 5 6 7 1 00 

67. Fig. 60. Bacchus in vacuo ; 

brass mounted 5 00 

68. Fig. 61. Bacchus illustrated, 

«1 50 and 7 3 00 

69. Fig. 62. Sheet Rubber Bags, 

with cap and hook, 3 4 5 1 50 

and « 7 2 00 

70. Fig. 63. Lungs Glass, illus- 

trating the mechanical ac- 
tion of the lungs, #2 00 and 3 00 

71. Fig. 64. Bell-Glass, Jar, and 

Bolthead, illustrating the 
expansion of air, &c, 3456 
100 and.... 7 2 00 

72. Fig. 65. Brass Plate and Wood 

Cylinder, illustrating the 
porosity of wood, pressure 
of air, &c, 1 00 

73. Fig. 66. Wood Cylinders and 

Weights, for sinking in wa- 
ter, after the air is removed 
from the pores, 15 cts., and 25 

74. Fig. 67- Mercury Tunnel, for 

showing porosity of wood, 



342 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Wo. Price. 

pressure of air, electric lu- 
minous shower, &c, .. 34567 1 00 

75. Fig. 68. Float Wheel, illustra- 

ting the resistance of air, 3 45 6 1 00 

76. Fig. 69. An illustration of the 

materiality of air. (Each 
part has been priced sepa- 
rately.)*'* 5 6 7 

77. Fig. 70. An improved Vane 

and Mill, for vacuo, 7 7 00 

78. Fig. 7L Tall Conical Guinea 

and Feather Glass, three 
feet high, $4 00 ; three and 
a half feet, $6 00 ; four feet 
high, eight inch diameter at 
bottom, four inch at top,. . . 8 00 

Brass Plate to use with Guinea 
and Feather Tube, four and 
five inches diameter, $2 00' 
and... 3 00 

SlidingrRod and Drop Button, 
for guinea and feather ex- 
periment ; see Fig. 20. 

Drop Tables (4) for guinea and 

feather experiment, 2 00 

79. Fig. 72. Guinea and Feather 

Tube, capped both ends ; 
has Stop-cock and Stand, 
Ball and Point for Electrici- 
ty, &c, for vacuum or con- 
densed air ; (see experi- 
ments ;) 3 feet long, 3 4 5 6 
5 00; four feet, 7 7 00; 5 
feet, ^3 00; 6 feet, #10 00; 
8 feet, 12 00 

80. Fig. 73. Philosophical Water 

Hammer, #1 00 and 2 00 

81. Fig. 74. Philosophical Water 

Hammer, with brass Cup 
and Stop-cock, for exhaust- 
ing, 345673 00 and 4 00 

Fig. 75. Stout Syphon Barom- 
eter, with brass Cap, and 
Stop-cock, for exhausting, 
&c, 5 00 

Fig. 76- Apparatus illustrating 
the absurdity of suction, SB 
inches high, without ex- 
hausting syringe, 5 00 

Fig. 77. Barometer in vacuo, 

(complete,) 3 ■» 5 3 00 

85. Fig. 78. Chamberlain's im- 

proved Torricellian Barome- 
ter, with Sliding-Rod, Hook, 
&c, 677 00 

86. Fig. 79. Barometer arranged 

to use in connection with 
the air pumps, as a gauge, 
P OOand 5 00 

87. Fig. 80. Syphon Gauge, in 

glass case, with stand, 
3*5"2 50 and 7 3 50 

88. Fig. 81. Pear Gauge, for de- 

termining the actual bulk of 
air exhausted from a bell- 
glass, (without sliding-rod,) 7 3 00 

89. Fig. 82. Bell and Stand, for 

yacuo, 3 1 25 and ■» 7 2 50 



32. 



34. 



No. Frfs*. 

90. Fig. 83. Apparatus illustrating 

the weight and buoyancy of 
air, gas, &c, (several experi- 
ments; see book,) $4 00 
and 34 676 00 

91. Fig. 84. Scales for weighing 

air, gas, &c. ; brass beam, 
18 inch ; copper globe, 6 
inch ; scale pans and bows/ 
sensitive to one tenth of a 
grain, 18 00 

92. Fig. 85. Stand, with graduated 

Scale Beam, and 6*inch Cop- 
per Globe, for weighing air, 

gas, &c, 12 00 

Small size, as above, with 4 

inch globe, 8 00 

93. Fig. 86. Weighing Air and 

Specific Gravity Scales ; 6 
inch Copper Globe ; 24 inch 
fine wood beam ; has an ele- 
vating stand and binding- 
screw, to adapt to hydrostat- 
ic experiments, 7 12 00* 

94. Fig, 87. Bell-glass graduated 

to cubic inches,. Stop-cock 
and Connecter, for measur- 
ing air or gas for weighing ; 
capacity, 200 cubic inches, . 4 09 
Graduated Bell-Glass as above, 
100 cubic inches, with Cap, 
Cock, and Connecter, 3 00 

95. Fig. 88. Syphon in vacuo, with 

Bell-Glass, Tunnel, Cock, 

and Jet, two sizes, 4 00 and 7 6 00 

96. Fig. 89. Glass Balloon _ and 

Car, in. glass jar, three sizes ; 
15 inch jar, $3 00 ; 18 inch, 
#4 00 ; and 24 inch, 5 00 

97. Fig. 90. Hydrostatic Balloon, 

with tall jar and Bell-Glass ; 
18inch,3i5674 00; 24 inch, 5 00 

98. Fig. 91. Glass Flask, with Cap 

and Stop-cock, for boiling 
water in vacuum, or under 
pressure, $2 00 and 3 00 

Small Thermometer to suspend 

in the flask, 75 cents and . . 1 00 

Spring Safety Valve, for the 

above flask, #1 OOand *1 50 

99. Fig. 92. Double Transferrer, 

with six inch Plates, four- 
teen inch Bar, and three 
Stop-cocks ; on mahogany 

stand, 15 00 

Double Transferrer, with five 
inch Plates, eight inch Bar, 
three Cocks, on Stand, 7 10 0« 

100. Fig. 93. Single Transferrer; 

has a brass capped two- 
quart Bell-Glass, Stop- 
cock, Brass Plate, Jet, and 
small Bell-Glass ; (is made 
up of parts before enumer- 
ated,) 345676 00 

101. Fig. 94. Freezing Apparatus ; 

4.J inch, #1 25; 6 inch, 
$2 00; 8 inch, 3 * 5 3 00; 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



343 



(Jo. Price. 

10 inch, #4 00 ; 12 inch, 

676 00; 15 inch, #8 00 

102. Fig. 95. Freezing Apparatus, 

with Thermometer and 
tall glass with brass Cap 
and Sliding-Rod ; 4£ and 
6 inches, #4 00 and . . 6 00 

103. Fig. 96. Apparatus arranged 

to freeze one quart of water 
at a time, with any of the 
five largest air pumps, .... 12 00 

104. Fig. 97. Freezing Apparatus, 

with Tunnel, Stop-cock, 
and Jet ; 8 inch, #4 00 ; 
10 inch, #6 00 ; 12 inch, 
#8 00; 15inch, 10 00 

105. Fig. 98. Improved Water 

Cups, to use with freezing 
apparatus, from. 15 cents 
each to 34567 7 5 

106. Fig. 99. Apparatus for freez- 

ing water by the evapora- 
tion of ether, $1 00 and.. 2 00 

107. Fig. 100. Cryophorus in vacuo, 

with brass Plate ; the wa- 
ter is frozen in the outer 
ball, from the condensation 
of the vapor in the ball with 
the bell-glass, #4 00 and. . 6 00 

108. Fig. 101. Bell-Glass, with 

glass Bulb and Tube, and 
spirit Thermometer, for 
freezing mercury by the 
cold produced from the 
evaporation of ether, $4 00 

and 6 00 

Tubes and Bulbs filled with 
mercury, for breaking, af- 
ter being frozen, 15 to 25 
cents each. 

109. Fig. 102. Freezing Apparatus 

with Thermometer and 
Sliding-Rods, adapted to 
the larger pumps ; 12 
inches diameter, $8 00 ; 
15 inches, 10 00 

110. Fig. 103. Tunnel, Stop-cock, 

and Jet, for introducing 
mercury, acid, ether, alco- 
hol, water, &c, into an ex- 
hausted bell-glass, $2 00 
and ?3 00 

111. Fig. 104. Apparatus for ex- 

ploding gunpowder in 
vacuo ; used also for other 
purposes; $3 00 and 5 00 

112. Fig. 105. Lock for striking 

flint and steel in vacuo, 

#2 00 and 3 00 

Leather Collars for Stop- 
cocks, assorted, per hun- 
dred, 3456750 

Oil prepared to use with Phil- 
osophical Instruments, per 
ounce, in vial, 34567 25 

Brass Caps for bell-glasses, 
from one half to two inches 
diameter, from 15 to 50 



Iron Stop-cocks, to use with 
mercury ; size and price as 
No. 16 and 17, page 340. 

HYDROSTATIC AND HYDRAU- 
LIC APPARATUS. 

1. Fig. 1. Equilibrium Tubes and 

Stand, best finish, $11 00 

Second quality, 2 00 

2. Fig. 2. Hydrostatic Paradox 

and fixtures complete, best 
quality, largest size, 25 00 

Hydrostatic Paradox, as above, 

second quality, 18 00 

Hydrostatic Paradox, fixtures, 
without the Stand and Scale- 
beam, 8 00 

A set of Avoirdupois (brass) 
Weights, from one half to 
sixteen ounces, 5 00 

A set of Troy Weights, from 

one half to twelve ounces,. . 3 00 

Graduated Glass Jar, two hun- 
dred cubic inches, 2 00 

3. Fig. 3. Glass Hydrometer, 

better finish, with weight 
adjusting to all liquids, .... 1 50 

4. Glass Hydrometer, large size, 

zero or water mark in the 
centre of the scale, is adapt- 
ed to all liquids, 2 50 

5. Glass Hydrometers, cheap fin- 

ish, graduated for water or 
ether, 100 

6. Fig. 4. Hydrometer Jar, with 

foot and lip ; ten cubic 
inches, $1 50 ; twenty cubic 
inches, $2 00 ; thirty cubic 
inches, $2 25 ; fifty cubic 
inches, 2 50 

7. Plane Hydrometer Jars, ten 

inches high, 75 cts. ; twelve 
inches, $100; fifteen inches, 
1 25 ; twenty inches, 1 50 

8. Fig. 5. Graduated Tubes, for 

specific gravity, 50 

9. Fig. 5. Hydrostatic Bellows, 

twelve inches square, six 
feet brass tube, in two 
joints, 6 00 

10. Fig. 6. Hydrostatic Bellows, 

best quality, double lined, 
extra tubes, &c, 7 8 00 

11. Fig. 7. Hydrostatic Bellows, 

circular twelve inch, with six 
feet brass tube in two joints, 5 00 
Fig. 7. Hydrostatic Bellows, 
as No. 11, with extra glass 
tube, with sockets and tun- 
nel, and inch square tube 
and tunnel, 8 00 

12. Fig. 8. Forcing Pump, or Fire 

Engine, with Stand, Cistern, 

and Hose, 8 00 

Lifting Pump, glass Barrel, 
with Stand, Cistern, and Re- 
ceiving Tunnel, 6 00 



344 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



No. Price. 

Both the above on one stand, 

with Cistern, 37 12 00 

13. Fig. 9. Archimedes Screw 

Pump, with Stand and Cis- 
tern, 7 6 00 

14. Screw Pump, on a large scale, 

and more highly finished, . . 10 00 

15. Fig. 10. Brass Syphon, with 

Suction Tube, Glass Jar, 
Stand, and Receiving Basin ; 
largest size, 5 00 

16. Syphon and Suction Tube, as 

above, 7 1 50 

Glass Syphon and Suction 

Tube, 1 25 

"Wertemberg Syphon, of Glass, 

50 cents, and 75 

17. Cylindrical Glass Jar, with 

Ball, Plate, and Hook, illus- 
trating upward and down- 
ward pressure of fluids; 
small size, $2 00 ; large size, 4 00 

18. Syphon and Cup, or Tantalus's 

Cup, 1 50 

19. Fig. 11. Vacuum Syphon, or 

Fountain Syphon, with Ba- 
sins, $ 2 00 and 3 00 

20. Fig. 12. Hero's Fountain,.... 6 00 

21. Fig. 13. Barker's Mill, #3 00 

and 5 00 

Glass model of the Centrifugal 

Pump, #6 00 and 8 00 

23. Apparatus illustrating the 

laws of the spouting of flu- 
ids, #10 00 and 20 00 

24. Fig. 14. Working model of 

the Hydraulic Press, cheap 
finished, #20 00 ; best fin- 
ished, 7 25 00 

Several pieces of apparatus, well adapt- 
ed for Hydrostatic and Hydraulic illus- 
trations, have been enumerated and 
figured in Pneumatics. 

ELECTRIC APPARATUS. 

1. An eighteen inch plate Elec- 

tric Machine, 3 i 25 00 

2. A twenty-four inch plate Ma- 

chine, 56 50 00 

3. A thirty inch plate Machine,. 7 75 00 

4. A thirty six inch plate Ma- 

chine, 100 00 

5. A forty inch plate Machine, . . 125 00 

6. A forty-eight inch plate Ma- 

chine _ 150 00 

7. Two forty-eight inch plates on 

one shaft ; four pair of fif- 
teen inch rubbers, and two 
negative conductors, 300 00 

8. A fifty-five inch plate, with two 

pair of eighteen inch rub- 
bers, and two negative con- 
ductors, 300 00 

9. Leyden Jars, one, two, three, 

and four quarts, #1, 3 2, 3, 

and 4 00 

10. Leyden Jars, with ring and 



No. Price. 

points, and crooked neck 
and ball, for suspending 
to conductor, one and two 
quarts, #1 25 and e7 3 50 

11. Leyden Jars, with sliding Dis- 

charger, two and four quarts, 

#4 00 and 6 00 

12. Insulating Stand, with Jar and 

Electrometers, 4 00 

13. Diamond or Luminous Jars, 

two and four quarts, 3 4 5 6 7 

3 00 and 5 00 

14. Leyden Jars, with movable 

coatings, one and two 
quarts, #1 50 and . . . . 3 * 56 7 3' 50 

15. Double Leyden Jars, one and 

two quarts, 45 7 3 50 

16. Electrometer Jars, one and 

two quarts, 3 * ~° 6 1 50 and. . 7 2 50 

17. Electric Batteries, four quart 

Jars, cased, 4 6 00 ; six quart 
Jars, cased, #8 00 ; four two 
quart Jars, cased, #10 00; 
six two quart Jars, cased, 
7 14 00 ; six three quart tall 
Jars, cased, #18 00 ; twelve 
two quart Jars, cased, 24 00 

18. Sliding Directing Rod, three 

and four feet long, 3 4 5 62 00 

and 7 3 00 

19. Single Spiral Spotted Tube 

and Stand, 3 * 5 <> 2 50 and. . 7 3 00 

20. Set (7) Spiral Spotted Tubes 

and Revolving Arm, mount- 
ed on stand ; two feet long, 
#15 00; three feet, 25 00 

21. Stand for luminating Eggs, 

#2 00and 3 00 

22. Luminous Letters, six and 

twelve inches square, on 
silk and in frame ; seen day 
or night; per letter, 50 cents 
and 75 

23. Luminous Star, on glass, 

mounted, 7 4 00 

24. Profile of Franklin, spotted on 

glass, and mounted, 4 00 

25. Insulated Director, 2 00 

26. Plane Discharger, 3 * 6 2 50 

27. Jointed Discharger, large size, 67 3 50 

28. Universal Discharger, 6 7 6 00 

29. Universal Discharger, with 

movable balls, points, and 
pincers, 7 00 

30. Revolving Bell Glass, with 

point and ring, #2 00 and. 7 2 50 

31. Lane's Sliding Discharger, 

#3 00 and 5 00 

32. Pith-ball Electrometer and 

stand, 3 4 5 6 75 cellts an) j 7 1 00 

33. Quadrant Electrometer and 

stand, 6 2 00 and 7 3 00 

34. Gold Leaf Electrometer, with 

evaporating cup and point, 

62 00 and 7 3 00 

35. Improved Gold Leaf Electrom- 

eter, with evaporating cup, 
point,and condensing plates, 5 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



345 



K«. Price. 

36 Atmospheric Electrometer, 

(Kinnersley's) 6 00 

37. Insulating Stool, sixteen 

inches square, 340675 00 

38. Stand and Bell for pith-ball 

dancing, #1 00 and 7 2 00 

39. Electric Bells, (3,) three inches 

diameter, 345673 00 

40. Set of nine Bells, mounted on 

a stand, 12 00 

41. Dancing Image Plates, eleven 

inches diameter, and sus- 
pended to prime conduc- 
tor, 345 2 00 

42. Dancing Image Plates, eleven 

inches, on adjusting stand, 67 3 00 

43. Dancing Image Plates, on 

insulating and adjusting 
stand, 6 00 

44. Dancing Images ; a pair, 3 4 30 

cents and 5 6 7 50 

45. Pith-balls, from one to three 

fourths inch diameter, from 
345 25 cents per dozen, in 

box, to 6 U 00 

Fancy colored Pith-balls, per 

doz., 30 cents to.. 150 

46. Electric Sportsmen and Birds, 

345675 cents and 7 1 00 

Electric Birds, per dozen, 50 

cents and 75 

47. Ratification, or Rat-killing 

Tube, $3 00 and 4 00 

48. Wax Cylinders and Handles, 

six, nine, and twelve inches 
long, 34567 1 00, 2 00, and 3 00 

49. Glass Friction Cylinders, 

capped and handled, twelve, 
eighteen, and twenty-four 
inches long, 345 1 50,6?2 00, 3 00 

50. Sulphur Cone and Cup, 75 

cents, and 1 00 

51. Powder Bombs, 3456 1 25 and 7 2 00 

52. Ivory Mortar and Ball, for de- 

composing oil, $2 00 and. . 3 00 

53. Electric Cannons, mounted, 

|400and 6 00 

54. Thunder House and Fixtures, 

84565 00 and 7 6 00 

65. Gas Pistols, belonging to thun- 
der house, 3 4 5 6 7 go 

56. Brass Electric Pistol ; has fix- 

tures to use with Galvanic 
Apparatus, #2 00 and 3 00 

57. Hydrogen Gas Generator, or 

Platina Igniter, with Gas 
Detonating Jet, Platina 
Sponge and Jet, various 
sizes ; two, four, and eight 
quarts, complete ; 3 45 $3 00, 
« 7 4 00, $8 00, and 14 00 

58. Long Haired Man, 343 50 cents, 

« 7 75 cents, and 1 00 

59. Electric Float Wheel and 

Point, 3456 l 00, 7 1 50 

60. The Abbe Nolet's Globe, 

5«3 00 and 7 5 00 



No. Price. 

61. Luminous Bell Glass, Points, 

and Sliding Rod, #3 00 and 5 00 

62. Balance Electrometer, large 

size, 6 00 

63. Electric S, and Point, 345 50 

cents, 6 7 75 cents, and 1 00 

64. Compound Electric S, with 

Point and Stand, $2 00 and 3 00 

65. Electric S in vacuo, is arranged 

with articles before named, 

66. Aurora Flasks, 1 00, 1 50, and 2 00 

67. Electric Bucket and Syphon, 

%\ 00 and 7 1 50 

68. Electric Swing and Image, 

%\ 00 and 4567 2 00 

69. Electric Seasons Machine, 

large size, mounted on In- 
sulating Stand, 6 00 

70. Electric Seasons Machine, 

smaller size, mounted on 
Insulating Stand, 6 7 3 00 

71. Electric Seasons Machine, 

small size, with point and 
stand ; stands in the centre 
hole of the prime conduc- 
tor, 345 2 00 

72. Electrophorus, eleven inches, 

mounted on Insulating 
Stand, with cover, and han- 
dle, and elastic bag, and jet, 
6 00 and 7 8 00 

73. Electric Spoons for igniting 

Ether, 34 5 75 cents, « 7 1 25 

74. Northern Light, or Aurora 

Tubes, from three to eight 
feet long, and mounted, 
6 00, 8 00, 10 00 and 12 00 

75. Magic Miser's Plate, plain and 

mounted, 5 75 cents, $1 00, 

and 67 2 00 

76. Electric Wheel and Inclined 

Plane, 2 00, 7 4 00 

77. Electric Swan and Basin, 75 

cents and 1 00 

78. Revolving Glass Globe and 

Point, 50 cents and 1 00 

79. Helix for Magnetizing Steel, 

2and 3 00 

80. Apparatus for Decomposing 

and Recomposing Water,. . 8 00 
Amalgam, per box, 25, 50, 75, 1 00 

CHEMICAL APPARATUS. 

1. Fig. 1. A Pair of Cylindrical 

copper Gasometers, 30 gal- 
lons capacity each bell, Com- 
pound Blow-pipe, with ad- 
justable Holder, 150 00 

2. Pair copper Gasometers, 15 gal- 

lons each,'. 1 60 00 

3. Pair copper Gasometers, 7 gal- 

lons each, 5 6 35 00 

4. Pair tin Gasometers, 7 gallons 

each, 4 25 00 

5. Fig. 6. Malleable Iron Retort, 

and tube, pint, 5 <32 00 



346 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



No. Price. 

6. Cast Iron Retort and Tube, 

quart, 7 3 00 

7. Flask and Screw Cap for Oxy- 

gen, «1 00 

8. Lead Tube, with screws con- 

ducting gas, 4567 1 50 

9. Fig. 7. Lead Retort and Tube 

for Hydrogen, quart, 5 00 

10. Fig. 10. Pair 13 inch Plan- 

ished Reflectors, in cases 
which serve as stands, and 
iron ball and stand, 4 5 6 7 8 00 

11. Fig. 12. Spirit Boiler, mount- 

ed to use with the Reflec- 
tors, 45672 50 

12. Fig. 70. Pair Cubes and 

Shields, for radiation and 
absorption of heat, 6 7 2 00 

13. Fig. 42. Pyrometer, with brass 

and iron expanding rod and 
twolamps,4 56 3 00 7 3 00 

14. Fig. 46. Lamp Stand, with four 

bows and binding screws, 4 5 6 7 2 00 

15. Lamp Stand or Retort Holder, 

with shifting bows and two 
binders, 5 00 

16. Conductometer, with iron, 

brass, copper, lead, tin, and 
glass conducting rods, . ... 67 2 00 

17. Conductometer, of a cheaper 

form, 45i 00 

18. Fig. 37. Apparatus for non- 

conducting power of liquids, 

#3, and 4 00 

19. Fig. 32. Platina Pendent 

Spoons and Rod, 6 7 1 00 

20. Copper Pendent Spoons and 

Rod, 56725 

21. Fig. 33. Pendent Sockets for 

tapers, &c, 50 

22. Fig. 34. Platina Forceps, 3 00 

23. Fig. 48. Fire Syringe, 7 inch 

plane, and box tinder, . . . 4 ° e 7 1 50 

24. Fig. 43. Fire Syringe, with 

stop-cock tinder cavity,.... 3 00 

25. Fig. 60. Set 3 wire gauze for 

cups with flame, 456775 

26. Fig. 20. Plane Mouth Blow- 

pipe, 50 cents and 7 75 

27. Fig. 21. Blowpipe, with con- 

densing bulb, 1 50 

28. Elevating Stands, with Table, 

Tripod, and Bughorn, 7 1 50 

29. Stands, with sliding screw 

clamps of wood for retort 

and tube holding, 3 and... 5 00 

30. Gas-bag, with socket and stop- 

cock, 6 gallon, 5675 00 

31. Hessian Crucibles, in nests 

of five, 6 7 20 

32. Fig. 22. Chemical Thermome- 

ter, 650° jointed scale, 5 00 

33. Chemical thermometer, 450°, 

plane scale, 5 67 2 50 

34. Fig. 11. Spirit Lamp, with 

ground cap, 4 5 671 00 

85. Aphlogistic Lamp, with plati- 
na coil, $1 and 7 2 00 



No. Pnee. 

36. Fig. 14. Air Thermometer, 

#2 and 3 00 

37. Fig. 16. Dropping Tube, 67 25 

cents and 30 

38. Fig. 17. Dropping Tube, with 

Rubber Air Bag, 100 

39. Fig. 15. Spirit Boiler, used 

with the hand, 75 cents and 1 00 

40. Fig. 18. Graduated oz. meas- 

ure, 6 75 cents, 46 7 1, and .. 125 

41. Fig. 26. Graduated measure, 

10 cubic inches, 45671 25 

42. Fig. 23. Volta's Eudiometer, 

graduated, 1 50 

43. Fig. 24. Hope's Eudiometer, 

graduated, 3 00 

44. Fig. 25. "Ore's Eudiometer, 

graduated, 2 50 

45. Fig. 27. Graduated Cubic inch 

tubes, 7 50 cents and 7 75 

46. Test Tubes, 5674,5 675,567 6, 

5678,456710,4567 12 inch, 

andlOcts. to 456730 

47. Fig. 29. Stand and doz. as- 

sorted test tubes, 2 00 

48. Fig. 35. Bulb and Tube for 

condensation of mixed li- 
quids, 7 75 

49. Fig. 36. Two Bulbs and Tube 

for condensation, 1 00 

50. Fig. 30. Glass Flasks, with 

ring necks for corks, half 
pint, 4 5 6 7 25 cents ; pint, 
45 6735 cents; quart 456750 

51. Fig. 19. Glass Funnels, half 

pint, 45 6 7 25 cents; pint, 

7 35 cts. and quarts 50 

52. Fig. 19. Flat Bottom Flasks, 

gill 567 20 cents, half pint 
567 30 cents, pint 5 6 740 cts., 
and quarts 56755 

53. Fig. 72. Globe Receivers, with 

ring neck, tube, and stop- 
per, half pint, 6 7 35 cents ; 
pint, 6 7 45 cents ; and quart, 55 

54. Fig. 72. Tubulated Retorts, 

gill 4 5 67 25 cents, half pint 
456730 cents, pint 455735 
cents, and quart 56 7 50 

55. Graduated 60 Drop. Tube on 

foot, 75 

56. Cast Iron Mercury Cisterns,.. 1 00 

57. Fig. 8. Chemical Furnace, 

lined, rings or glass holders, 
tube holes, and sand bot- 
tles, 7 10, 15, and 20 00 

58. Iron Tube, adapted to Furnace, 

with screws, decomposing 
water, 75 cents and 7 1 00 

59. Glass Evaporating Dishes, 4 5 6 7 

20 cents, 4567 25 cents, 4667 
30cents, and 67 35 

60. Porcelain Evaporating Dishes, 

nest of five, $1 50 and .... 2 00 

61. Wedgwood Evaporating Dish- 

es, nest of five, 7 1 50 and. . 2 50 

62. Glass Mortar and Pestles, 50 

cents, 75 cents, and 7 1 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



347 



No. Price. 

63. Porcelain Mortars and Pes- 
tles, * 67 1 25, 1 50, and.... 2 00 

54. Iron Mortar and Pestle, 125, 

1 50, and 1 75 

65. Platina Spatulas, 7 1 50, 2, and 2 50 

66. Steel Spatulas, 25 cents and. . 50 

67. Hydrogen Balloons, 12 inch, 

1; 15 inch, 456 2; 18 inch, 
73; 20 inch, 4: and 24 
inch, '. 6 00 

68. Woulded Rings for support- 

ing retorts, flasks, evapo- 
rating dishes, &c, set of six, 
l.and 150 

69. Assortment of Test Rods, 

eight, 50 cents and 75 

70. Glass Stirring Rods, six, 5 6 7 75 

71. Fig. 43. Hydrogen Gas Gene- 

rator, with gas jet, platina 
sponge, and long jet for det- 
onating gas, one and two 
quarts capacity, 4 and 6 00 

72. Fig. 44. Hydrogen Generator, 

in frame, with basement 
and fixtures, 8 quarts, 8; 
12 quarts, 12 00 

73. Glass Alembics, pint, 7 1 75; 

quart, 2 50 

74. Boglana Vials, per dozen,.... 67 1 00 

75. PrinceRupert'sDrops,perdoz., 67 50 

76. Long-necked Matresses, half 

pint, 4567 30 cents; pint, . 4 5 fi7 50 

77. Air Thermometer, tube and 

bulb, 36 inch, 50 



APPARATUS FIGURED AND 
DESCRIBED IN PNEUMATICS, 
BUT USED IN CHEMISTRY. 

Stop-cocks. See No. 16, Fig. 10. 

Screw Coupling, (5,) Nos. 18 to 22. 

Gallows Connecters and Tips, Nos. 23 
and 24 

Hose for conducting Gas, No. 25, Fig. 
19. 

Sliding Rods and Brass Plates, No. 26, 
Fig. 20. 

Transferring Pump, double acting, 
No. 14, Fig. 8. 

Bell Glasses, (40,) No. 29, Fig. 23, to 
No. 34, Fig. 28. 

Hydrogen Bubble Pipe, No. 58, Fig. 51. 

Strong Glass Condensing Chamber, 
with screw cap for showing the chemical 
effect produced on various substances 
subjected to atmospheric or gas pressure. 

Condensation Gauge for glass chamber, 
No. 55, Fig. 48. 

Bell Glass, cap, cock, and plate, for 
transferring air or gas, No. 100, Fig. 93. 

Evaporating Dishes, Fig. 98. 

Bell Glasses, with screw cap, and grad- 
uated to cubic inches, from 100 to 300, 
No. 94, Fig. 87. 

Gas Pistols. See Electricity. 

Scales, with 5 inch steel boxed beam, 
pair two and a half inch pans, set of 



weights from half a grain to 6 drams, 
cased, included in apparatus, No. 91, 
Fig. 84. 

Larger, and more highly finished 
Scales, for use in Laboratory, 18 inch 
beam, No. 91, Fig. 84. 

STEAM. 

F 'S- Price. 

Steam Balls for exploding by 
candle, doz., 456750 

1. Steam Ball and Jet, brass.. 4567 1 50 

2. Wollaston's Illustration of 

Low Pressure Steam En- 
gine, copper globe boiler, 
cylinder, piston and rod, 
handle and safety-valve,.. 46 7 3 00 

3. Working Model of the Upright 

High Pressure Steam En- 
gine complete, 35 00 

4. Section Model of the High 

Pressure Steam Engine, 18 
inch beam, 25 00 

5. Marcet's Steam Globe, 5 inch 

diameter, lower half of iron, 
and not injured by mercury, 
a 36 inch condensation 
gauge and scale, a steam 
thermometer in brass case, 
a safety-valve adjustable • 
from one to twelve atmos- 
pheres' pressure, a 7 wick 
copper lamp and stop-cock 
to start revolving jet, steam- 
gun, &c, 67 25 00 

5. Marcet's Steam Globe, 6 inch 

diameter, with large fix- 
tures as above, steam gun, 
jet for charging Ley den Jar 
with electricity from steam, 
insulating stand for all, .... 50 00 

6. Chamberlain's Steam Flask 

with screw cap, stop-cock, 
safety-valve, steam ther- 
mometer, inside, spirit lamp 

and stand for all, 7 8 00 

Note. The Hose connects this steam 
flask with the air pump, to show the 
boiling point to vary with the pressure 
of the atmosphere. 

7. Working Model of the Hori- 

zontal High Pressure Steam 
Engine, complete in all its 
parts, 50 00 



AN ASSORTMENT OF CHEMI- 
CAL SUBSTANCES, 

In quantity and kind, adapted to use with 
the several sets of Apparatus for a 
Course of Experimental Lectures. 

*510, 6 15, 7 20to #25 00 

1. Sulphuric Acid, 

2. Muriatic " 

3. Nitric " 

4. Sulphuric Ether, 



348 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



5. Liquid Ammonia, 

6. Alcohol, 

7. Naphtha, 

8. Nitrate of Barytes, 

9. Muriate of " 

10. Sodium, 

11. Potassium, 

12. Iodine, 

13. Phosphorus, 

14. Nitrate of Silver, 

15. Nitrate of Ammonia, 

16. Carbonate of " 

17. Muriate of " 

18. Oxalic Acid, 

19. Pure Chlorate of Potassa, 

20. Granulated Zinc, 

21. Black Oxide of Manganese, 

22. Prussiate of Potash, 

23. Bicarbonate of Soda, 

24. Fluor Spar, 

2-5. Pulverized Steel, 

26. " Iron, 

27. " Brass, 

28. " Copper, 

29. " Tin, 

30. " Lead, 

31. " Zinc. 

MAGNETIC, ELECTRO-MAG- 
NETIC, GALVANIC, &c. 

Pair ten inch Bar Magnets and 

Armatures, in case, e 3 00 

Single Bar Magnet and Keeper, 3 6 7 1 00 
Compound Magnet, twelve inch,. . 7 2 50 
U Magnet and Armature, 1 2 3 4 50 

cents, and 3 *l 00, 2 00 

TJ Magnet and Wheel Armature, . 67 3 00 
Double U Magnet and Armature, 

3 00, and 5 00 

"Wheel Armature for Double Mag- 
net, 1 00 

Round Bar Armature, 3 4 6 25 cents, 

and 57 50 

Y Armature, 3 4 50 cents, and . . . 6 6 7 75 
Star Armature, 3 4 6 75 cents, and 5 7 1 00 
Magnetic Needle, six inch, and 

Stand,* 2343 ?! 00, and....«l 50 
Galvanic Battery, 25, 50, and 100 ; 
pair of cast zinc plates, 
four by six inches, in cop- 
per cells ; are freed from 
acid solution by being raised 
one inch with crank wind- 
lass; are a very efficient 
decomposing and igniting 
battery, 7 25 00, 45 00, and 90 00 
Sulphate of Copper Battery, 8 by 

9£ inches, 6 8 00 

Sulphate of Copper Battery, 6 by 

9inches, 45 6 00 

Sulphate of Copper Battery, 4 by 

5£inch, 1237 3 00 

Powder Cup, brass, 3 4 5 6 7 50 

Voltaic Pistol, used in electrics, 

&c., 6 3 00 and 7 4 00 



Electro, or wound Iron Magnets, 

plain, 3 1 00; 43 2 00; and 7 5 00 

Electro-Magnets, mounted in 
frame, with Armature, 
10 00 and 15 00 

Electro-Magnet, mounted in 
frame, with Armature and 
Lever to sustain 1000 pounds 
with small Battery, 25 00 

Electro Coil and Hemispheric 
Magnets, with ring-handles, 
12S2 50, 4 5 673 50, and.... 5 00 

Magnetizing Helix, on Stand, and 

round bar, 3 4 5 6 7 3 00 

Pair of Coils to separate from the 

Magnet, 2 50 and 5 00 

Orsted's Galvanometer, 7 4 00 

Galvanometer, compass form, 34 3 67 3 00 

A seven inch Terrestrial Helix, 
used with needle, dipping, 
reversing poles, &c, 34 1 oO 
and 5672 00 

Galvanometer, mounted on tripod 

stand, with adjusting screws, 6 00 

De la Rive's Ring or Floating Bat- 
tery, 367 1 25 

Lever Beam Electro-Magnetic En- 
gine, 10 00 and 15 00 

Horizontal Revolving Armature 

Engine, 10 00 

Revolving Magnet Bell Engine, 6 7 12 00 

Revolving Electro-Magnet, be- 
tween poles of Steel U Mag- 
net, 3 4 56 7,5 00 and 6 00 

Thermo-Electric Revolving Arch, 
between poles of Steel U 
Magnet, with Lamp, . . . . 4 5 6 7 5 00 

Separable Helices, or Apparatus 
for Analysis of Shocks, De- 
composing Water, &c, . . . G 7 12 00 

Horizontal Electro-Magiietic Ap- 
paratus for Shocks, with Vi- 
brating Armature or Break- 
piece, for medical tise, &c, 
34 5 00, &6 00, 670O, and.. 8 00 

Shocking Handles, with binding 

screws, 34567 1 50 

Set (4) Connecting Wires, 3 4 5 6 7 50 

Magneto-Electric Machine, with 
five eighteen inch Magnets, 
and a large compound re- 
volving wire Armature, all 
substantially mounted, and 
sufficiently powerful to de- 
compose water, 7 40 00 and 50 00 

Decomposing Cell, with tubes for 
collecting gases, mixed or 
separate, 6 " 3 00 and 5 00 

Note. The above list of magnetic 
apparatus comprises only the more im- 
portant instruments for the illustration 
of principles in this branch of science ; 
and also affords as wide a range of 
prices as consists with liberal size, im- 
proved construction, and good mechan- 
ism. 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP APPARATUS. 



349 



GEOMETRY, &c. 

Set of eight mahogany Solids, il- 
lustrating Cube Root, Plane 
and Solid Measure, &c i 2 1 25 

Set of twelve Solids, viz., Cylinder ; 
Oblique Cylinder ; Prism, 
three sides ; Prism, six 
sides ; Cone ; Pyramid ; 
Frustrum of Cone ; Frus- 
trum of Pyramid ; Sphere ; 
Hemisphere ; Oblate Sphe- 
roid; Prolate Spheroid,... 12 ! 00 



Fries. 

Set of ten Parallelopipeds, pa- 
pered and numbered with 
reference to " Holbrook's 
Geometry," » 2 1 00 

Set of regular Solids, made of 
pasteboard, on cloth, cut and 
strung so as to be drawn 
into solid form, ' 2 1 00 

Set of five Geometrical Trans- 
posing Frames 12 1 00 

Numeral Frame, i 2 1 25 

A sheet of forty Geometrical Illus- 
trations, 12 02 



INDEX 



TO THE SETS OF APPARATUS SELECTED FROM THE FOREGOING 
CATALOGUES. 

To notice all the articles composing the various sets, it will be necessary to look 
with care through the entire Catalogue. The sets will, of course, be subject to 
modification by the purchaser. 

Set No. 1, marked 1 against the price of each article, #50 00 



m oo 

250 00 
400 00 
500 00 
700 00 
1000 00 



BOOKS, EXPERIMENTAL, ILLUSTRATIVE, AND EXPLANATORY, 
WITH PRICE CATALOGUES. 

" Chamberlain's Pneumatic Experiments," with one hundred and twenty 
wood cut illustrations and two hundred experiments, with notes and 
explanations, 75 

" Chamberlain's Electric Illustrations and Experiments," seventy illustra- 
tions, with notes, &c, 1 50 

" Chamberlain's Illustrated Price Catalogue of Mechanics, Optics, Astro- 
nomical, Pneumatic, Hydrostatic, Electric, Chemical, Galvanic, Mag- 
netic, Electro-Magnetic, &c, 75 

" Francis's Chemical Experiments," with one hundred and fifty wood cut 

illustrations and two thousand one hundred and forty-nine experiments, 2 00 

" Davis's Manual of Magnetism," with some two hundred cut illustrations 

and experiments, 1 25 

Note. All of the Instruments are illustrated by Wood Cuts, and such descriptions 
and dimensions given as will enable the purchaser to judge correctly of the general character 
of the Instruments. 



NO 



TERMS, CASH. 

DISCOUNT TO AGENTS 



Prices uniform and definite ; and such as will afford only a manufacturer's profit. 
Boxes, packing, and shipping, two and a half per cent, on the amount of the bill, 
if over one hundred dollars. 
Insured against breakage by transportation for two and a half per cent. 
Insured against the dangers of the seas, from one to two and a half per cent. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

OF 

PHILOSOPHICAL INSTRUMENTS 

MANUFACTURED AND SOLD BY 

N. B. CHAMBERLAIN, 

BOSTON, MASS. 



Pneumatics. — Chamberlain's American Am Pump. 
Fig. 1.— Nos. 1, 2,3, 4. 




CHAMBKK^AIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



351 



Air Pump. 
Fig.2.— Nos.5,6. 




352 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 



Three Inch Stop-Cock 
Fig. 10. 




Bell in Vacuo. 
Fig. 82. 



Vane and Mill in Vacuc 
Fig. 70. 

Q 





CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP APPARATUS. 



353 



Hydrostatics. — Lifting and Forcing Pumps. 
Fig. 8. 




Pnevmatics. — Improved Glass 

Condensing Chamber. 

Fig.*. 



Pneumatics. — Copper Condensing 
Chamber and Fixtures. 





23 



354 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Chamberlain's Barometer 

and Expansion Apparatus. 

Fig. 78. 

9 
4, 



Tall Conical Guinea 
and Feather Glass. 
Fig. 71. 



k 



gUT " 



Freezing Apparatus 

with Thermometer. 

Fig. 95. 



Syphon in Vacuo. 
Fig. 88. 





^ (f 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



355 



One and a half Inch 

Stop-Cock. 

Fig. 11. 




Weight and Buoyancy 
of Air. 
Fig. 83. 




Guinea and Feather Tube, 

or Northers Light Tube. 

Fig. 72 



Hydrostatics. — Hydrostatic 
Bellows. 

Fig. 7. 




356 



SCHOOL AKeHITECTURE. 



Seasons Machine — Brass Mounted. 
Fig. 21. 




Improved High Mounted Globb. 
Fig. 22. 




CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 



357 



Mechanical Powers. 
Fig. 8.— Nos. 10, 11. 




358 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Reflecting Telescopb. 
Ftff. 16.— No. 26. 




CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS. 359 

Electrics, — Fifty-five Inch Plate Electric Machine. 

Fig. 4. 




360 



SCHOOL, ARCHITECTURE. 



Section Model or the High Pressure Steam Engine — Eiohteiw 
and Twenty-four Inch Beam. 

Fig. 5. 




Pyrometer, with Lamps and Brass and Iron Expanding Rods 

Fig. 6. 




CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP APPARATUS. 



361 



Chamberlain's Steam Flask, with 
Cap, Cock, Safety- Valve, Ther- 
mometer, Stand, and Lamp. 
Fig. 2. 



Marset's Steam Globe, with 

TALL PreSSURE-GaCGE, StEAM 

Thermometer, Stop-Cock, 
Safety- Valve, and 
Copper Lamp. 
Fig. 3. 




Decomposing and Recomposing by Galvanism or Electricity. 
Fiq. 4. 




362 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Electrics. — Eighteen Inch Plate Electric Machine. 
Fig. 1. 




Optics. — Improved Magic Lantern. 
Fig. 17.— No. 27. 




CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF APPARATUS 



363 



Galyanic Battery. 
Fig. 7. 




Cylindrical Battery. 

Fig. 8. 





Magneto-Electric Machine. 
Fig. 9. 




364 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Orrery — Motion by Crank. 
Fig. 18. 




Orrery — Motion by Winding Spring 
Fig. 19. 




Brass-Mounted Spring Orrery. 
Fig. 20. 




CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP APPARATUS., 



365 



Apparatus fob Analysis of Shocks ok Separable Helices 
Fig. 10 

Jg 

Fi"" 




Eitctricity. — Gas Generator, with Jet and 
Platina Sponge, Detonating. Jet, &c. 

Galvanism. — Helix and 

Hemispheric Magnets. 

Fig. 11. 





366 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE 
CHEMICALS, STEAM, &c. 



Cored Bell Gasometers, 
with Adjustable Com- 
pound Blowpipe. 



Fig. I. 




PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS, 



SELECTED FROM 



CHAMBERLAIN'S ILLUSTRATED AND DESCRIPTIVE 

CATALOGUES, 

AND ARRANGED IN SETS CORRESPONDING TO THE 

SUMS ANNEXED. 



[It will be seen that the highest cost and largest sized instruments have 
not been incorporated into sets, as such instruments are generally required 
for institutions having more or less good apparatus of a small class, that is 
made more valuable by being used in connection with an efficient Air 
Pump or Electric Machine.] 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 



No. 1, marked 1 in Catalogue. 



Cohesive Attraction Plates, 

Cohesive Attraction Lead Hemi- 
spheres, 

Set of six Capillary Attraction 
Tubes, 

Set of six Collision Balls, in frame, 

Set of Centre of Gravity, Centre of 
Motion, Centre of Magnitude, 
Common Centre, &c, 

Set of eight Cube Root Solids,... 

Set of twelve Geometrical Solids, . 

Set of ten Parallelopipeds, 

Set of five Regular Solids, 

Set of five Geometrical Transpos- 
ing Frames, 



1 00 Sheet of Geometrical Illustrations, 



1 00 



1 50 
3 00 



7 00 
1 25 
1 00 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 



Numeral Frame,.. 
Prism 

Set of six Lenses,. 
Terrestrial Globe, . 
Seasons Machine, . 
Orrery, , 



20 

1 00 



Cylindrical Electro-Galvanic Bat- 
tery, 

Helix and pair of Hemispheric 
Magnets, *. 

Magnetic Needle and Stand, 



3 00 
2 50 

#50 00 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 

No. 2, marked - in Catalogue. 



Cohesive Attraction Plates, 1 00 

Lead Hemispheres, for Cohesive 

Attraction," 1 00 

Capillary Tubes, 1 50 

Collision Balls and Frame 4 00 

Centre of Gravity Apparatus,.... 7 00 

Mechanical Powers, 35 00 

Set of six Lenses, 6 00 

Prism, 2 00 

Compound Microscope,.. 10 00 

Orrery, 10 00 

Seasons Machine, 7 00 

Terrestrial Globe, 5 00 



Cube Root Solids, 1 25 

Twelve turned Solids, 1 00 

Ten Parallelopipeds, 1 00 

Five regular Solids, 1 00 

Five Transposing Frames, 1 00 

Sheet Geometrical Diagrams,.... 20 

Numeral Frame, 1 00 

Cylinder Electro-Galvanic Battery, 3 00 

Helix and Armatures, 2 50 

U Magnet and Armature, 50 

Magnetic Needle and Stand, 75 

#100 00 



368 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP PRICES. 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 



No. 3, marked 3 in Catalogue. 



*Air Pump, 

♦Bell Glass, Screw Capped 

♦Freezing Apparatus, 

♦Expansion, 

Straight Glass Jar, 

♦Hand Glass, 

♦Tall Bell Glass and Jar, 

♦Mercury Tunnel, 

♦Glass Pan for do., , 

Hemispherical Cups, , 

Upward Pressure Apparatus, 

Set Screw Couplers, 

Bell for Vacuo, 

♦Sliding Rod, 

♦Sheet Rubber Bag 

♦Artificial Fountain, 

♦Guinea and Feather Tube, 

♦Barometer Apparatus, 

♦Weighing and Buoyancy of Air, 

Syphon Vacuum Gauge, 

Inertia Wheel, 

♦Philosophical Water Hammer, . 

♦Condenser, 

♦Condensing Chamber and Cock, 

Air Gun Barrel, 

♦Revolving Jet, 

♦Exploding Cup, Cap and Cock,. 

♦Hose and Jet, 

♦Straight Brass Jet, 

Stopcock Collars, 



Pair Water Pumps,. 



Mechanical Powers, 

Centre of Gravity Apparatus, . . . 

Electric Machine, 18 inch Plate, 

Two quart Leyden Jar, 

Diamond Jar, ...., 

Movable Coatings Jar, 

Electrometer Jar, 

Discharger, 



25 00 f 


3 50 


4 00 


75 


75 


75 


3 00 


75 


25 


5 00 


6 00 


2 50 


1 25 


1 25 


1 25 


4 00 


6 00 


3 00 


5 00 


2 50 


1 00 


3 00 


5 00 


3 50 


1 00 


1 25 


2 00 


1 00 


50 


25 


12 00 


35 00 


7 00 


25 00 


2 00 


3 00 


3 00 


1 50 


2 50 



Directing Rod, 

Spiral Tube, 

Bells, 

S. and Point, 

Pithball Electrometer, 

Images and Plates, 

Insulating Stool, 

Box Pithballs, 

Sportsman and. Birds, 

Powder Bomb, 

Thunder House and Fixtures, . 

Hydrogen Generator, 

Long-Haired Man, 

Wheel and Point, 

Seasons Machine, 

Ether Spoon, 

Wax Friction Cylinder, 

Glass Friction Cylinder, 

Box Amalgam, 



Cylindrical Electro Battery, 

Electro Magnet, 

Electro Coil and Armatures, 

Powder Cup, 

Pair of Magnetic Needles and 

Stands, 

Bar Magnet, 

U Magnet and Armature, 

Terrestrial Helix, 

Revolving Electro Magnet, 

Magnetizing Helix, 

Compound Helices, with vibrating 

Armature for Shocks, 

Pair Handles, for Shocks, 

Set of Connecting Wires, 

Galvanometer, 



200 

2 50 

3 00 
50 
50 

2 50 
6 00 

25 

75 

1 25 

5 00 

3 00 
50 

1 00 

2 50 
75 

1 00 

1 00 

25 

3 00 

1 00 

2 50 
50 

2 00 



5 00 

1 50 

50 

3 00 



Pneumatics and Hydraulics,.. $107 00 

Electrics, 71 00 

Mechanics, &c, 42 00 

Magnetics, &c, 30 00 

$250 00 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 



No. 4, marked 4 in Catalogue. 



Collision Balls, 3 00 

Mechanical Powers, 35 00 

# 

Set of Eye Models 12 00 

Prism,.. 1 00 

Compound Microscope, 10 00 

Orrery, 10 00 

Seasons Machine, 7 00 

Pair ten inch Globes, 20 00 

Double Barrel Air Pump, 35 00 

Eight inch brass capped Bell 
Glasa 3 50 



Tall Bell Glass and Jar, 3 00 

Freezing Apparatus, 4 00 

Expansion Apparatus, 75 

Hand Glass, 75 

Mercury Tunnel, 1 00 

Glass Pan, for Mercury, 25 

Straight Jar, for Bell Glass, 75 

Hemispherical Cups, 5 00 

Upward Pressure Apparatus 6 00 

Dozen Bursting Squares, 1 50 

Cap Valve for do. , „ 25 

Wire Guard for do., 75 

Set of Screw Couplers, 2 50 

Bell for Vacuo, 1 25 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OP PRICES. 



369 



SlidingJRoa, 1 50 

Sheet Rubber Bag, 1 25 

Artificial Fountain, 4 00 

Float Wheel 1 00 

Bacchus Illustration, 1 50 

Guinea and Feather Tube, 6 00 

Water Hammer, . . 3 00 

Barometer Apparatus, 3 00 

Weight and Buoyancy of Air, .... 6 00 

Vacuum Gauge 2 50 

Condensing Pump, 5 00 

Condensing Chamber and Cock,.. 3 50 

Air Gun Barrel, 1 00 

Revolving Jet, 1 25 

Jet Paradox Tunnel, 1 50 

Water Pan and Tube, 75 

Plate Paradox and Disks 1 00 

Pipe Paradox and Balls, 1 00 

Water Hose, 1 00 

Brass Jet, 50 

Exploding Cup and Cock, 2 00 

Stopcock Collars, 25 

Pair Water Pumps and Fixtures,. 12 00 

Electric Machine, 18 inch Plate,. 25 00 

Battery of four quart Jars, 6 00 

Double Jar, 3 50 

Diamond Jar, 3 00 

Movable Coatings, 3 00 

Electrometer Jar, 1 50 

Discharger, 2 50 

Directing Rod, 2 00 

Spiral Tube, 2 50 

Bells,... 3 00 

Pithball Electrometer, 50 

S. and Point, 50 

Pair Plates and Images, 2 50 

Box Pithballs, 25 

Insulating Stool, 6 00 

Sportsman and Birds, 75 

Powder Bomb, 1 25 

Thunder House and Fixtures,... 5 00 

Hydrogen Generator, 3 00 

Long-Haired Man, 50 

Float Wheel and Point, 1 00 

Seasons Machine, 2 50 

Ether Spoon, To 

Wax Friction Cylinder, 1 00 

Glass Friction Cylinder, 1 50 



25 00 
1 00 

1 50 

6 00 

2 50 



Electric Swing and Image, 2 00 



Gasometers and Fixtures, 

Flask, screw-capped for Oxygen,. 

Lead Conducting Tube, 

Reflectors and Iron Ball, 

Spirit Boiler for do., 

Pyrometer, Rods, and Lamps,... 

Conductometer and Rods, 

Fire Syringe and Tinder, 

Set of Wire Gauze, 

Lamp Stand, 

Spirit Lamp, 

Grad. Oz. Measure, 

Ten cubic inch do., 

Test Tubes, six, 

Flasks, three, 

Funnel, 

Retorts, tubulated, three, ........ 

Evaporating Dishes, three, 

Hydrogen Balloon, 

Pair long-necked Matrasses, 

Dozen Candle Bombs, 

Dozen Prince Rupert's Drops, 

Steam Globe and Jet, 

Wollaston's Steam Apparatus,.. 
Chemical Substances, 



60 

2 00 
60 
50 
50 

1 50 

3 00 
10 00 



Electro Cylinder Battery, 6 00 

U Magnet and Armature, 50 



Electro Magnet, 1 00 

Bar Armature, 25 

Y Armature, 75 

Star Armature, 75 

Magnetic Needle and Stand, .... 1 00 

Powder Cup, 50 

Coil and Hem. Armatures, 2 50 

Magnetizing Helix, 3 00 

Terrestrial Helix, ' 1 50 

Revolving Magnet, 5 00 

Vibrating Shocker, 5 00 

Shocking Handles, 1 50 

Set of Connecting Wires, 50 



Pneumatics, 124 75 

Electrics, , 80 00 

Chemicals, 68 20 

Magnetics, &c, 29 75 

Mechanics, &c 98 00 

#400 00 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 



No. 5, marked 5 in Catalogue. 



Collision Balls, 4 00 

Mechanical Powers, 35 00 

Centre of Gravity, 7 00 

Set of Eye Models, 12 00 

Prism,.; 1 00 

Microscope, 12 00 

Orrery, 10 00 

Seasons, 7 00 

Pair of Globes, 30 00 

Ah- Pump, 40 00 

Open Swelled Bell Glass, 4 50 

Brass screw-capped Bell, 3 50 

24 



Straight Jar for do., 1 00 

Freezing Apparatus, 4 00 

Tall Bell Glass and Jar,.... 3 00 

Expansion Apparatus, 75 

Swelled Hand Glass, 1 00 

Hemispherical Cups, 5 00 

Upward Pressure Apparatus,.... 6 00 

Dozen Bursting Squares, 1 50 

Cap Valve for do., 25 

Wire Guard for do., 75 

Set of Screw Couplers, 2 50 

Bell for Vacuo, 1 25 

Sliding Rod for do., 1 25 

Sheet Rubber Bag, &e., 1 25 



370 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF PRICES. 



Artificial Fountain, &c, 4 00 

Mercury Tunnel, 1 00 

Glass Pan for Mercury, 30 

Guinea and Feather Tube, 6 00 

Barometer Apparatus, 3 00 

Weight and Buoyancy of Air, .... 6 00 

Syphon Vacuum Gauge, 2 50 

Float Wheel, 1 00 

Water Hammer, 3 00 

Condensing Chamber and Cock,.. 3 50 

Condenser, 5 00 

Air Gun Barrel, 1 00 

Revolving Jet, 1 25 

Plate Paradox and Disks, 1 00 

Pipe Paradox and Balls, 1 00 

Hose and Water Jet, 1 00 

Brass Jet, 50 

Leathers for Stopcocks, 50 

Exploding Cup, Cap, and Cock,.. 2 00 

Jet Paradox and Balls, 1 50 

Water Pan and Tube, 75 

Pair of Water Pumps, 12 00 

Electric Machine, 24 inch Plate,. . 50 00 

Battery, 8 00 

Double Jar, 3 50 

JJiamond Jar, 3 00 

Movable Coatings, 3 00 

Electrometer Jar, •. . 1 50 

Directing Rod, 2 00 

Discharger, 2 50 

Spiral tube, 2 50 

Pithball Electrometer, 50 

Insulating Stool, 6 00 

Set of Bells, 3 00 

Dancing Image Plates, . . . • 2 00 

Pair of Dancing Images, 50 

Box of Pithballs, 50 

Sportsman and Birds, 75 

Powder Bomb, 1 25 

Abbe Nolet's Globe, 3 00 

Thunder House and Fixtures, .... 5 00 

Hydrogen Generator, 3 00 

Long-Haired Man, 50 

Float Wheel and Point, 1 00 

S. and Point, 50 

Seasons Machine, 2 50 

Ether Spoon, 75 

Miser's Plate, 150 

Electric Swing and Image, 1 00 

Box of Amalgam, 25 

Gasometers and Fixtures, 35 00 

Retort for Oxygen, 2 00 



Conducting Gas Tube, 1 60 

Reflectors on Stands, 5 00 

Spirit Boiler, 2 50 

Barometer and Lamps, 3 00 

Lamp Stand, 2 00 

Conductometer 1 00 

Pendent Spoon, 25 

Fire Syringe and Tinder, 1 50 

Set of Wire Gauze, 50 

Gas Bag and Cock, 5 00 

Chemical Thermometer, 2 50 

Spirit Lamp, 1 00 

Graduated Measure, 1 00 

Test Tubes, six, 75 

Flasks, three, 1 00 

Funnel, 20 

Flasks, flat bottom, three, 15 

Tub. Retorts, six, 2 00 

Evaporating Dishes, three, 75 

Two Wedgwood do., 50 

Mortar and Pestle, 1 00 

Hydrogen Balloon, 2 00 

Stirring Rods, 25 

Matrasses, two, 60 

Candle Bombs, dozen, 50 

Steam Globe, brass, with Jet,.... 1 50 

Chemical Substances, 10 00 

Electro Battery, 8 00 

Bar Magnet, 1 00 

U Magnet and Armature, 1 00 

Electro Magnet, 2 00 

Bar Armature, 25 

Y Armature, 75 

Star Armature, 75 

Pair of Needles, 2 00 

Powder Cup, 50 

Coil and Hem. Armatures, 2 50 

Magnetizing Helix, 3 00 

Galvanometer, 3 00 

Terrestrial Helix, 150 

Revolving Electro Magnet, 5 00 

Analysis of Shocks Apparatus, . . 12 00 

Shocking Handles, 1 50 

Set of Connecting Wires, 50 

Thermo- Electric Arch, 5 00 

Decomposing Cell, 3 00 

Pneumatics, 135 30 

Electrics, 110 00 

Chemicals, 85 55 

Mechanics, &c, 118 00 

Electro Magnets, 51 25 

#500 10 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 

No. 6, marked 6 in Catalogue. 



Collision Balls, 4 00 

Centre of Gravity Apparatus, .... 7 00 
Mechanical Powers, 35 00 

Lenses, 6 00 

Prism, 2 00 

Microscope, 12 00 

Orrery, 25 00 

Seasons Machine, 7 00 



Globes, 30 00 

Magic Lantern, 25 00 

Astronomical Slides, 20 00 

Air Pump, 75 00 

Open Swelled Bell Glass, 4 50 

Brass capped Bell Glass, 8 inch, . . 3 50 

Straight Jar for do., 1 00 

Tall Bell Glass and Jar 3 00 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF PRICES. 



371 



Freezing Apparatus, 

Expansion do., • 

Swelled Hand Glass, 

Hemispherical Cups, 

Upward Pressure Apparatus,.... 

Dozen Bursting Squares, 

Cap Valve for do., 

Wire Guard for do., 

Set of Screw Couplers, 

Bell for Vacuo, 

Sliding Rod for do., &c, 

Sheet Rubber Bag, &c, 

Artificial Fountain, 

Bacchus Illustration, 

Mercury Tunnel, 

Guinea and Feather Tube, 

Water Hammer, Cap, and Cock, . 

Barometer Apparatus, 

Weight and Buoyancy of Air, .... 
Copper Condensing Chamber and 

Cock, 

Condensing Pump, 

Air Gun Barrel, 

Jet Paradox and Balls, 

Cock and Int. Ext. Jets for do.,.. 

Revolving Jet, 

Plate Paradox and Disks, 

Pipe Paradox and Balls, 

Water Hose and Jet, 

Brass Jet, 

Water Pan and Tube, 

Bladder, Cup, Cap, and Cock,.... 
Stopcock Leathers, 



Pair of Water Pumps, . 
Hydrostatic Bellows,.. 



Electric Machine, 24 inch Plate, 

Battery of four Jars, 

Atmospheric Jar 

Diamond Jar, 

Movable Coatings, 

Electrometer Jar, 

Directing Rod, 

Jointed Discharger, 

Universal Discharger, 

Spiral Tube, 

Pithball Electrometer, 

Insulating Stool, 

Set of Bells, 

Dancing Image Plates, 

Pair of Dancing Images, 

Box of Pithballs, 

Sportsman and Birds, 

Powder ' Bomb, 

Wax Friction Cylinder, 

Glass Friction Cylinder, 

Quadrant Electrometer, 

Gold Leaf Electrometer, 

Thunder House and Fixtures, . . 

Hydrogen Generator, 

Long-Haired Man, 

Float Wheel and Point, 

S and Point, 

Abbe Nolet's Globe, 

Seasons Machine, 

Igniting Spoon, > . . 

Miser's Plate, 

Bucket and Syphon, 

Electric Swing and Image, 



00 
00 
00 
00 
00 
50 
25 
75 
2 50 
1 25 

1 50 

2 00 

4 00 
' 1 50 

1 00 

6 00 

3 00 

7 00 

7 00 

3 50 

5 00 
1 00 
1 50 
1 50 
1 25 
1 00 
1 00 

1 00 
50 
75 

2 00 
50 

12 00 

8 00 

50 00 
10 00 

3 00 
3 00 
3 00 

1 50 

2 00 

3 50 

6 00 

2 50 
75 

6 00 

3 00 
3 00 

50 

50 

75 

1 25 

1 50 

1 50 

2 00 
2 00 



5 00 

4 00 

50 

1 00 
75 

3 00 

3 50 

75 

2 00 

1 00 

2 00 



Box of Amalgam, 

Pair of Gasometers and Fixtures,. 

Oxygen Retort, 

Lead Conducting Tube, 

Pair of Reflectors, 

Spirit Boiler, 

Radiating Cubes, 

Pyrometer, 

Lamp Stand, 

Conductometer, 

Pendent Spoons, 

Fire Syringe and Tinder, 

Set of Wire Gauze, 

Large Gas Bag and Cock, 

Crucibles, 

Chemical Thermometer, 

Spirit Lamp, 

Dropping Tube, 

Graduated Measure, Oz., 

Measure, ten cubic inches, 

Six Test Tubes, 

Flasks, six, 

Tunnel, Glass 

Flat Flasks, three, 

Globe Receivers, two, 

Tubular Retorts, six, 

Glass Evaporating Dishes, three,. 
Wedgwood. Mortar and Pestle,. . . 

Hydrogen Balloon, 

Stirring Rods, three, 

Bologna Vials, six, 

Rupert's Drops, dozen, 

Matrasses, two, 

Candle Bombs, dozen, 

Steam Globe and Jet, 

Wollaston's *Steam Apparatus, . . , 

Marset's Steam Globe,... 

Chemical Substances, 



50 

35 00 
2 00 

1 50 
8 00 

2 50 

2 00 

3 00 
2 00 
2 00 
1 25 

1 50 
75 

5 00 
20 

2 50 
1 00 

20 
1 00 

1 25 
75 

2 20 
25 

1 25 
80 

2 50 
60 

1 00 

2 00 
25 
50 
50 
70 
50 

1 50 

3 00 
25 00 
15 00 



Sulphate Copper Battery, 8 00 

Bar Magnet, 1 00 

U Magnet and Wheel, 3 00 

Bar Armature, 25 

Y Armature, 75 

Star Armature, 75 

Magnetic Needle and Stand, 100 

Powder Cup, 50 

Voltaic Pistol f. 3 00 

Electro Magnet, 5 00 

Coil and Hem. Magnets, 3 50 

Magnetizing Helix, 3 00 

Galvanometer, 3 00 

Terrestrial Helix, 2 00 

De la Rive's Ring, 125 

Bell Engine, 12 00 

Revolving Electro Magnet, 5 00 

Thermo-Electric Arch, 5 00 

Analysis of Shocks Apparatus,... 12 00 

Shocking Handles, 1 50 

Connecting Wires, 50 

Decomposing Cell, 3 00 

173 00 

Pneumatics, &c, 200 00 

Electrics...... 122 00 

Chemicals, 130 95 

Magnetics, &c, 75 00 

#700 00 



372 



CHAMBERLAIN'3 CATALOGUE OF PRICES. 



SET OF PHILOSOPHICAL APPARATUS. 

No. 7, marked 7 in Catalogue. 



7 00 

9 00 

1 75 

25 

1 00 

2 50 

1 25 

2 00 



Set of Collision Balls, 6 00 

Centre of Gravity Apparatus, .... 7 00 

Whirling Machine, &c, 8 00 

Mechanical Powers, 35 00 

Set of Lenses, 6 00 

Prism, 2 00 

Compound Microscope, 18 00 

Orrery, 25 00 

Pair 13 inch high-mounted Globes, 40 00 

Magic Lantern, 25 00 

Astronomical Illustrations, 20 00 

Seasons Machine, 7 00 

Air Pump, 85 00 

Bell Glass, open, swelled, 6 00 

Bell Glass, brass capped, 3 50 

Tall Bell Glass and Jar, 3 00 

Freezing Apparatus, 12 inch, .... 6 00 

Expansion Apparatus, 2 00 

Hand Glass, swelled, 1 00 

Bladder Cup, Cap, and Cock, .... 2 00 

Hemispherical Cups, 

Upward Pressure Apparatus, . . 
Dozen Bursting Squares...... 

Cap Valve for do., 

Wire Guard for do., 

Set of Screw Couplers, five, . . . 

Bell for Vacuo, 

Sliding Bod for do.,. ......... . 

Vane Mill for Vacuo, V. 7 00 

Sheet Rubber Bag, &c, 2 00 

Artificial Fountain and Jets, 4 00 

Tall Bolthead and Cap, 1 50 

Bacchus Illustration, 3 00 

Mercury Tunnel, 1 00 

Guinea and Feather Tube, 7 00 

Water Hammer, Cap, and Cock,.. 3 00 

Chamberlain's Barometer, 7 00 

Vacuum Gauge, 3 50 

Weighing Air Apparatus, 15 00 

Buoyancy of Air Apparatus, 6 00 

Double Transferrer* 10 00 

Straight Jar, 1 00 

Pear Gauge, 3 00 

Syphon in Vacuo, 4 00 

Glass Condensing Chamber, ...... 10 00 

Double Acting Condenser, 8 00 

Air Gun Barrel, 1 25 

Revolving Jet, 1 25 

Stopcock, Int. and Ext. Jets,.... 2 00 

Jet Paradox Tunnel, &c, 1 50 

Water Pan and Tube, 75 

Plate Paradox and Disks, I 25 

Pipe Paradox and Balls,.. 1 25 

Water Hose and Jet, 1 00 

Straight Brass Jet, 75 

Condensation Gauge Syphon, ... . 3 00 

Condensation Gauge Globe, 1 50 

Condensation Gauge, graduated,. 1 50 

Dozen Crushing Squares, 1 00 

Dozen Sinking Globes, 50 

Bell for Condensed Air, 1 25 

Thermometer for Condens. Cham., 1 00 



Stopcock Leathers,.... 

Pair of Water Pumps, . 
Hydrostatic Bellows,.. 
Hydrostatic Press, .... 



50 



Thirtj^inch Plate Machine, 

Battery, six Jars, 

Double Jar, 

Diamond Jar, 

Movable Coatings, 

Atmospheric Jar, 

Electrometer Jar, 

Sliding Directing Rod, 

Jointed Discharger, ............ 

Universal Discharger, 

Spiral Spotted Tube. 

Spotted Star, 

Revolving Bell Glass, 

Pithball Electrometer, 

Quadrant do., 

Gold Leaf do., 

Insulating Stool,.... 

Stand, Bell, and Dancing Balls,. 

Set of Bells, three, 

Dancing Image Plates,.... ...... 

Pair of Dancing Images, 

Assortment of Pithballs, 

Electric Sportsman and Birds, . . 

Wax Friction Cylinder, 

Glass Friction Cylinder, 

Powder Bomb, 

Thunder House and Fixtures,... 

Brass Cannon, &c 

Hydrogen Generator, 

Long-Haired Man, 

Float Wheel and Point, ........ 

Abbe Nolet's Globe, 

Electric S- and Point, 

Electric Bucket and Syphon,... 

Electric Swing and Image, 

Electric Seasons Machine, 

Electrophorus and Fixtures,.... 

Electric Igniting Spoon, 

Miser's Plate, 

Inclined Plane and Wheel, 



Pair of Gasometers, 

Iron Retort for Oxygen, 

Lead Conducting Tube, 

Pair of 13 inch Reflectors, in case, 

Spirit Boiler for do. , 

Pair of Radiating Cubes, 

Pyrometer, Rods, and Lamps,. . . . 

Two Lamp Stands, 

Conductometer, six Rods, ....... 

Pair of Pendent Spoons, 

Fire Syringe and Tinder, 

Set of Wire Gauze, three, 

Blowpipe, 

Elevating Stand, &c, 

Large Gas Bag and Stopcock,.... 

Set of Crucibles, 

Chemical Thermometer, 



12 00 


8 00 


20 00 


85 00 


14 00 


4 00 


3 00 


3 00 


3 00 


2 50 


3 00 


3 50 


7 00 


3 00 


4 00 


2 00 


1 00 


3 00 


3 00 


6 00 


2 00 


3 00 


3 00 


50 


1 00 


1 00 


2 00 


2 00 


2 00 


6 00 


4 00 


4 00 


75 


1 50 


5 00 


1 00 


1 50 


2 00 


3 50 


8 00 


1 00 


2 00 


4 00 


60 00 


3 00 


1 50 


8 50 


2 50 


2 00 


4 00 


4 00 


2 00 


1 25 


1 50 


75 


50 


1 50 


5 00 


20 


2 50 



CHAMBERLAIN'S CATALOGUE OF PRICES. 



373 



Spirit Lamp, 100 

Aphlogistic Lamp, . . 2 00 

Dropping Tube, 25 

Graduated Oz. Measure, 1 00 

Measure, ten cubic inches, 1 25 

Dozen Test Tubes, assorted, .... 1 50 

Graduated Tube, cubic inch,.... 50 

Condensation Tube, 75 

Flasks, six, assorted, 2 20 

Glass Funnels, two, 60 

Flasks, flat bottom, six, 2 50 

Globe Receivers, two, 80 

Tubular Retorts, six, assorted,... 2 50 

Chemical Furnace, ' 10 00 

Iron Tube for Decomposing,.... 1 00 

Evaporating Dishes, three, 75 

Wedgwood do., five, 1 50 

Glass Mortar and Pestle, 1 00 

Wedgwood do., 1 25 

Platina Spatula, 1 50 

Hydrogen Balloon, 3 00 

Stirring Rods, Glass, six, 75 

Bologna Vials, dozen, 1 00 

Prince Rupert's Drops, 50 

Matrasses, three, assorted, 1 10 

Alembic, 1 75 

Steam Balls, dozen, 50 

Brass Steam Globe and Jet, 1 50 

Wollaston's Steam Apparatus,.. 3 00 
Marcet's Steam Globe and Fix- 
tures, 25 00 

Chamberlain's Steam Flask and 

Fixtures, 8 00 

Sul. Copper Battery, 3 00 

Bar Magnet and Keeper, 1 00 

U Magnet and Wheel Armature, . 3 00 

Bar Armature, 50 



Y Armature, 75 

Star Armature, 1 00 

Magnetic Needle and Stand,.... 1 00 

Galvanic Battery, 25 06 

Powder Cup, 50 

Voltaic Pistol, 4 00 

Electro Magnet, 5 00 

Coil and Hem. Magnets, 3 50 

Magnetizing Helix, 3 00 

Galvanometer, 3 00 

Orsted's Galvanometer, 4 00 

Terrestrial Helix, 2 00 

De la Rive's Ring, 1 25 

Bell Engine, 12 00 

Revolving Electro Magnet, 5 00 

Thermo-Electric Arch, 5 00 

Analysis of Shocks Apparatus,.. 12 00 

Shocking Handles, 1 50 

Connecting Wires 50 

Magneto-Electric Machine, 40 00 

Decomposing Cell, 3 00 

Mechanics, Astronomical, Op- 
tics, &c, 200 00 

Pneumatics, 250 00 

Electrics, 210 00 

Chemicals, 200 00 

Galvanic, &c, 100 00 

pooo 00 

Set of Chemical Substances, 
for use with the above Ap- 
paratus, 20 00 

Note. — See page 347, Apparatus, figured 
and described in Pneumatics, but used is 
Chemistry. 



574 



MISCELLANEOUS SUGGESTIONS. 



Hints respecting Blackboards. 

The upper portion of the standing blackboard should be inclined back a 
little from the perpendicular, and along the lower edge there should be a pro- 
jection or trough to catch the particles detached from the chalk or crayon 
when in use, and a drawer to receive the sponge, cloth, lamb's-skin, or other 
soft article used in cleaning the surface of the board. 

Blackboards, even when made with great care, and of the best seasoned 
materials, are liable to injury and defacement from warping, opening of seams, 
or splitting when exposed to the overheated atmosphere of school-rooms, 
unless they are set in a frame like a slate, or the panel of a door. 

By the following ingenious, and cheap contrivance, a few feet of board can 
be converted into a table, a sloping desk, one or two blackboards, and a form 
or seat, and the whole folded up so as not to occupy a space more than five 
inches wide, and be easily moved from one room to another. It is equally 
well adapted to a school-room, class-room, library or nursery. 

// Under side of the „ ' 

swinging board, sus- | fc)- 1 

pended by rule-joint 
hinges, when turned up, 
painted black or dark 
chocolate. 

a d Folding brackets, 
inclined at an angle of 
75 degrees, and swung 
out to support the board 
when a sloping desk is 
required. 

b c Folding brackets 
to support the swinging 
board when a bench or 
flat table is required. 

e e e e Uprights attached to the wall. 

g g Form to be used when the swinging board is let down, and to be sup- 
ported by folding legs. The under side can be used as a blackboard for small 
children. 

h A wooden button to retain the swinging board when turned up for use as 
a blackboard. 

n Opening to receive n 

inkstands, and deposit 
for slate, pencil, chalk, 
&c. 

m Surface of swing- 
ing board when let 
down. 

I Surface of form or 
bench. 

When not in use, or let down, the desk and form should hang flush with 
each other. 

A cheap movable blackboard can be made after the following cut (Fig. 3. 









<> 


O 


() 


i 




m 


8Ft. 7£n. 








1 


I 











SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



375 




A large movable 



A movable stand to support a blackboard 
may be made like a painter's easel, as repre- 
sented in the accompanying cut. 

n, Pins for board to rest on. c, Hinge or 
joint to the supporting legs, which are braced 
by hook b, and may be folded up, and the stand 
put away in a closet. A stand of this kind is 
convenient to display outline and other maps, 
reading lessons and other diagrams. 



blackboard may be made as represented in the 
accompanying out. An upright frame, 
strongly braced by cross-pieces (a) is in- 
serted into the feet (b,) or horizontal sup- 
ports having castors, on which the whole 
may be rolled on the floor. Within 
grooves on the inside of this upright 
frame is a smaller frame (c) hung by a 
cord which passes over a pulley (d,) and 
is so balanced by weights, concealed in 
the upright parts, as to admit of being 
raised or lowered conveniently. Within 
this inner frame is hung the blackboard 
on pivots, by which the surface of the 
board can be inclined from a perpendic- 
ular. 



A cheaper movable frame, with a blackboard suspended on a pivot, 

can he made as represented in the 
lower diagram. The feet, if made 
as represented in this cut, will be 
liable to get broken. 

Composition for Blackboards. 
Lampblack and flour of emery 
mixed with spirit-varnish. 

No more lampblack and flour of 
emery should be used than are suf- 
ficient to give the required black 
and abrading surface ; and the var- 
nish should contain only sufficient 
gum to hold the ingredients togeth- 
er, and confine the composition to 
the board. The thinner the mix- 
ture, the better. 

The lampblack should first be 
ground with a small quantity of al- 
cohol, or spirit-varnish, to free it 
from lumps. 

The composition should be appli- 
ed to the smoothly-planed surface 
of the board, with a common painter's brush. Let it become thoroughly, 
dry and hard before it is used. Rub it down with pumice-stone, or a piece 
of smooth wood covered with the composition. 
This composition may also be used on the walls. 




EI 




■■ 




ll®^* 


■ 


■ 


'*f '\ 




gJQ SCHO "H, ARCHITECTURE. 

Slate Blackboard. 

In the class-rooms of the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb, and 
all similar institutions, where most of the instruction is given by writing, and 
drawings on the blackboard, large slates from three feet wide, to four feet 
long are substituted for the blackboard. These slates cost from $2 to $3, 
and are superior to any other form of blackboard, and in a series of years 
prove more economical. 

Plaster Blackboard. 
As a substitute for the painted board, it is common to paint black a portion 
of the plastered wall when covered with hard finish, (i. e. plaster of Paris and 
sand ;) or to color it by mixing with the hard finish a sufficient quantity of 
lamp-black, wet with alcohol, at the time of putting it on. The hard finish, 
colored in this way, can be put on to an old, as well as to a new surface. 
Unless the lamp-black is wet with alcohol, or sour beer, it will not mix uni- 
formly with the hard finish, and when dry, the surface, instead of being a 
uniform black, will present a spotted appearance- 

Canvas Blackboard. 

Every teacher can provide himself with a portable, blackboard made of 
canvas cloth, 3 feet wide and 8 feet long, covered with three or four coats 
of black paint, like Winchester's Writing Charts. One side -might, like 
this chart, present the elements of the written characters classified in the 
order of their simplicity, and guide-marks to enable a child to determine with 
ease the height, width, and inclination of every letter. Below, on the same 
side, might be ruled the musical scale, leaving sufficient space to receive 
such characters as may be required to illustrate lessons in music- The oppo- 
site side can be used for the ordinary purposes of a blackboard. When rolled 
up, the canvas would occupy a space three feet long, and not more than three 
inches in diameter. 

Directions for making Crayons. 

A school, or the schools of a town, may be supplied with crayons very 
cheaply, made after the following directions given by Professor Turner oi 
the American Asylum for the Deaf and Dumb. 

Take 5 pounds of Paris White, 1 pound of Wheat Flour, wet with water, 
and knead it well, make it so stiff that it will not stick to the table, but not so 
stiff as to crumble and fall to pieces when it is rolled under the hand. 

To roll out the crayons to the proper size, two boards are needed, one, to 
roll them on ; the other to roll them with. The first should be a smooth pine 
board, three feet long, and nine inches wide. The other should also be pine, 
a foot long, and nine inches wide, having nailed on the under side, near each 
edge, a slip of wood one third of an inch thick, in order to raise it so much 
above the under board, as, that the crayon, when brought to its proper size, 
may lie between them without being flattened. 

The mass is rolled into a ball, and slices are cut from one side of it about 
one third of an inch thick ; these slices are again cut into strips about four 
inches long and one third of an inch wide, and rolled separately between 
these boards until smooth and round. 

Near at hand, should be another board 3 feet long and 4 inches wide, across 
which each crayon, as it is made, should be laid so that the ends may pro- 
ject on each side — the crayons should be laid in close contact and straight. 
When the board is filled, the ends should be trimmed off so as to make the 
crayons as long as the width of the board. It is then laid in the sun, if in 
hot weather, or if in winter, near a stove or fire-place, where the crayons 
may dry gradually, which will require twelve hours. When thoroughly dry, 
they are fit for use. 

An experienced hand will make 150 in an hour. 



GOOD YEAR'S VULCANIZED INDIA RUBBER. 377 



Goodyear's Metallic Gum-elastic, or Vulcanized India rubber. 

The' fabric known as "Goodyear's Gum-elastic, or Vulcanized India rubber" 
invented and manufactured by Charles Goodyear, of New Haven, Conn., is 
capable of many highly useful applications in the school-room, and for educa- 
tional purposes generally. By the changes wrought by Mr. Goodyear in the 
construction of his fabrics, all of the remarkable properties of the gum in its 
native state are preserved and improved, while its defects and objeetional 
features are obviated. There seems to be no limit to the many useful purposes 
to which it may be applied, in every department of the useful arts, and of prac- 
tical life, and the public is not yet apprised of its manifold adaptations to hu- 
mane purposes, and to the protection of life and property. We shall here notice 
only a few of its many useful applications in the school- room, and for school 
purposes generally. 

Book-binding or Covers- 

Several styles of Goodyear's fabrics are admirably adapted to the binding, or 
covers of school-books. A cover of this material does not crack, or warp, is 
not injured by water or oil, is not easily soiled, and if soiled, can be readily 
cleaned. A school-book bound in this way, we have every reason to suppose, 
will outlast, in the ordinary "wear and tear" of a child's use, (except that of 
the knife, which ought never to be allowed in a child's hand in the school- 
room,) a dozen bound in the best style with any kind of leather. 

School Books. 

Its uses are not confined to covers, but school books can be printed on this 
fabric, which can be manufactured of suitable thinness for this purpose, and 
at the same time have a strength of texture, which will not tear, but outlast the 
best linen paper, and at the same time be readily cleaned when soiled. 

When school books are printed on this fabric, and bound in covers of the 
same, one of the greatest items of educational expense will be reduced. 

Maps and Charts. 

We have seen beautiful specimens of maps printed on various specimens of 
a new fabric, recently invented, and called vegetable leather, gutn-elastic vellum, 
and metallic tissue, which will admit of the roughest use, and are capable of 
being handled for years without any injury, and can be rolled or folded up 
when not in use. We see no difficulty in printing outline maps, charts, and 
diagrams of all kinds on this fabric, which can be rolled up when not needed, 
and which can be washed and wiped clean with sponge, if soiled from use, or 
from the dust and smoke of the school-room. Both sides of the fabric can be 
used for the purposes of printing. The outline maps, if made of suitable 
fabric, can be filled ■ up by the scholar, and the pencil marks erased by the 
sponge. Maps of this material can be so made as to exhibit the elevations and 
depressions on the earth's surface. 

Globes. 

We have seen beautiful specimens of globes, celestial and terrestrial, and 
of a great variety of sizes, from three inches to three feet, made of the fabric 
above described, such as vegetable leather, or gum-elastic vellum. When em- 
bossed, they show the elevations and depressions, the mountains and valleys, 
and water-courses of the earth's surface. When inflated with gas lighter than 
atmospheric air, they float about the room. If soiled, they can be easily cleaned 
with the sponge, and will bear the roughest usage. If the great outlines of the 
globe only are printed, the pupil can be exercised in filling up the blank with a 
lead pencil. When articles made of this fabric come into demand, our schools 
can be furnished with globes almost at the price of children's toys, and thus 
the great objection of expense will no longer prevent the introduction of this 



378 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

piece of apparatus, and of visible illustration, into every school of every grade. 
When not inflated, the globe of three feet can be packed away in a space 
of about as many inches. 

Floor Cloth, or Carpet. 

This fabric is admirably adapted for carpeting the aisles of a school-room, 
both to prevent reverberation, and to secure cleanliness. It can be easily 
cleaned, and will wear as long as the floor itself. 



Blackboard and Desk Covering. 

By using different styles of this fabric, a suitable surface of any desirable 
size can be obtained for the lead or slate pencil, which can be attached per- 
manently to a wall, or be made in a portable form. 

Ii can be attached to the top of the desk, and thereby prevent all reverberation. 
When thus applied, it will not gather dust, or wear out, like cloth, but can be 
kept clean with a sponge, and will wear as long as the wood itself. The fabric 
used for covering a desk, can be of the same style of fabric as that used for a 
blackboard or slate, and thus answer all the purposes of either of these articles 
of apparatus. 

Sponge. 

An article is made of the gum, leavened and raised like bread, and called a 
sponge, from its close resemblance, in texture and uses, to the natural sponge. 
It is the best article which we have seen for erasing marks made by a lead or 
slate pencil, or chalk, on paper, slate, or blackboard, or prepared surface of 
any kind in the nature of the blackboard or slate. Besides answering all the 
purposes of the sponge in such applications, it will remove the oiliness which 
is frequently communicated to the slate by the hand, &c. It is also inval- 
uable as a mop, or scrub, or shoe mat, at the door of the school-house, as it is 
not injured by exposure, or the roughest and most constant usage. 



Pen and Pencil Wiper. 

The article used for making the sponge can also be made into a pen-wiper, 
and can be attached to the inkstand, (which can also be manufactured of the 
same material.) It can also be attached to the end of the lead pencil, or to the 
port-crayon, or handle for the more convenient use of the crayon, chalk, or slate 
pencil. It will work much closer than the native gum, and is admirably 
adapted to drawing purposes. 



Calisthenic Exercises. 

Every school, and especially every school for girls and young ladies, should 
be supplied with swings, and other apparatus for developing, expanding, and 
strengthening the muscles of the chest, arms, &c, and for these purposes several 
styles of this fabric are admirably adapted. 



Drawing and Writing Tablets. 

One style of the improved metallic fabric is admirably adapted as a substi- 
tute for paper or slate, for introductory exercises in writing and drawing, as 
each impression of the pencil can be removed by the sponge, and a fresh, clean 
surface as constantly secured. The same material can be used for books for 
memoranda, records of attendance, returns of school committees, 6cc. 

The excellence of this fabric for all school purposes, as compared with paper, 
and other materials used for similar purposes, consists in its durability and 
economy. 



LIBRARY. 



Every school should he furnished with a Library which should include, 

1. Books on schools and school-systems, for the use of school officers 
and parents ; and on the theory and practice of teaching, for the pro- 
fessional instruction of teachers. 

2. Books of reference, for the use principally of teachers. 

3. Books for circulation among the pupils. 

4. Books for circulation among the parents, and inhabitants of the Dis- 
trict, or neighborhood. 

In the arrangement, and furniture of a school-house, provision should 
be made for the Library. 

The following catalogue may assist those who are charged with the 
purchase of books : 

Books on Education. 

The School and School-master, by Alonzo Potter, (Bishop of 
Pennsylvania,) and George B. Emerson. New York: Harper and 
Brothers. Boston : Fowle and Capen. Price $1.00. 551 pages. 

This volume was prepared at the request of the late James Wads- 
worth, of Geneseo, New York, with special reference to the condition and 
wants of common schools in that State. Its general principles and most 
of its details are applicable to similar schools in other parts of the country, 
and. indeed, to all seminaries employed in giving elementary instruction. 
Mr. Wadsworth directed a copy of it to be placed in each of the school 
libraries of New York, at his expense, and his noble example was fol- 
lowed in respect to the schools of Massachusetts, by the Hon. Martin 
Brimmer, of Boston. 

CONTENTS. PART I. Introduction. Chapter I. Education op the People. Sec. I. 
What is Education. Sec. II. Prevailing Errors in regard to the Nature and End of Education. 
Sec. III. The same Subject continued. Sec. IV. Same Subject continued. Sec. V. What is 
the Education most needed by the American People. Sec. VI. The Importance of Education, 
1. To the Individual. Sec. VII. The Importance of Education, 2. To Society. 

Chapter II. Common Schools. Sec. I. Relation of Common Schools to other Means of 
Education. Sec. II. Present State of Common Schools. — 1. School-houses. 2. Manners. 3. 
Morals. Sec. III. Sa?ne Subject continued. — 4. Intellectual Instruction. 5. Irregular Attend- 
ance. Sec. IV. How can Common Schools be improved ? — 1. Discussion. 2. Female Teachers. 
3. Union or High Schools. 4. Consolidation of Districts. Sec. V. The Improvement of Com- 
mon Schools continued. Organization in Cities. — 1. District System. 2. Monitorial. 3. 
Facher System. 4. American system. 5. Diversity of Class-books. Sec. VI. Sa?ne Subject, 
continued. — Education of Teachers. 

CONTENTS. PART II. Introduction. Book I. Qualities. Chap. I. Mental and 
Moral, important in a Teacher. Chap. II. Health. Exercise. Diet. Sleep. Recreation. 

Book II. Studies. Chap. I. Laws of the Creation. Chap. II. Natural Laws. Chap. III. 
Independence of the Natural Laws. Chap. IV. Higher Studies. Chap. V. Advantages of a 
Teacher's Life. 

Book III. Duties. Chap. I, To Himself. Self-Culture. Chap. II. To his Pupils, to give 
them means of Knowledge. Chap. III. To his Pupils, to form their Moral Character. Chap. 
IV. To his Pupils, Cultivation of their Powers. Chap. V. Communication of Knowledge. 
Chap. VI. To his Fellow-Teachers. Chap. VII. To Parents and the Community. 

Book IV. The School. Chap. I. Organization. Chap. II. Instruction. General Prinei« 
pies. Chap. III. Teaching: 1. Reading. 2. Spelling. 3. Grammar. 4. Writing. 5. DrfaW- 



380 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

ing. 6. Arithmetic. 7. Accounts. 8. Geography. 9. History. 10. Physiology. 11. Com 
position. Chap. IV. Government. 

Book V. The School-house. Chap. I. Situation. Chap. II. Size. Chap. III. Position 
and Arrangement. Chap. IV. Light. Warming. Ventilation. 

The Teacher's Manual, by Thomas H. Palmer. Boston: Marsh, 
Capen, Lyon & Webb, 1840. pp. 263. Price, 75 cents. 

This work received the prize of five hundred dollars, offered by the 
American Institute of Instruction, in 1838, for " the best Essay on a sys- 
tem of Education best adapted to the Common Schools of our country.' 1 

CONTENTS. PART I. Chapter I. Introductory. Chapter II. Who are our Schoolmas- 
ters. Chapter III. Physical Education. Chapter IV. Intellectual Education. Chapter V. In- 
tellectual Education, continued. Chapter V 'I. Moral Education. Chapter VII. Recapitulation. 

PART II. Chapter I. Introductory. Chapter II. Physical Education. Chapter III. Physi- 
cal Education, continued. Chapter IV. Physical Education, continued. Chapter V. Intellec- 
tual Education. Chapter VI. Intellectual Education, continued. Chapter VII. Intellectual 
Education, continued. Chapter ■ VIII. Intellectual Education, continued. Chapter IX. Intel- 
lectual Education, continued. Chapter X. Intellectual Education, concluded. Chapter, XL 
Moral Education. Chapter XII. Moral Education, continued. Chapter XIII. Conclusion. 

The Teacher Taught, by Emerson Davis, late Principal of the 
Westfield Academy. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb, 1839. 
pp. 79. Price 37 § cents. 

This valuable work was first published in 1833, as " An Abstract of a 
Course of Lectures on School-keeping." 

Slate and Blackboard Exercises, By William A. Alcott. New 
York: Mark H. Newman. Price 37 cents. 

The chapters in this little work were first published in the Connecticut 
Common School Journal, in 1841. The various suggestions and methods 
are highly practical. 

Theory and Practice of Teaching, by David P. Page, Principal 
of the New York State Normal School. New York : A. S. Barnes & Co. 

CONTENTS. Chapter I. The Spirit of the Teacher. Chapter II. Responsibility ot the 
Teacher. Sec. I. The Neglected Tree. Sec. II. Extent of Responsibility. Sec. III. The Au- 
burn Prison. Chapter III. Habits of the Teacher. Chapter IV. Literary Qualifications of 
the Teacher. Ceapter V. Right Views of Education. Chapter VI. Right Modes of Teach 
ing. Sec. I. Pouring-in Process. Sec. II. Drawing-out Process. Sec. III. The more Excel 
lent. WSy. Sec. IV. Waking up Mind. Sec. V. Remarks. Chapter VII. Conducting Recita 
tions. Chapter VIII. Exciting an Interest in Study. Sec. I. Incentives. Emulation. Sec. 
II. Prizes and Rewards. Sec. III. Proper Incentives. Chapter IX. School Government, 
Sec. I. Requisites in the Teacher for Government. Sec. II. Means of securing Good Order, 
Sec. III. Punishments, Improper, Proper. Sec. IV. Corporal Punishment. Sec. V. Limita> 
tions and Suggestions. Chapter X. School Arrangements. Sec. I. Plan of Day's Work 
Sec. II. Interruptions. Sec. III. Recesses. Sec. IV. Assignment of Lessons. Sec. V. Re 
views. Sec. VI. Examinations, Exhibitions, Celebrations. Chapter XI. The Teacher's Re 
lation to the Parents of his Pupils. Chapter XII. The Teacher's Care of his Health. Chap 
ter XIII. The Teacher's Relation to his Profession. Chapter XIV. Miscellaneous Sugges< 
tions. Sec. I. Things to be avoided. Sec. II. Things to be performed. Chapter XV. The 
Rewards of the Teacher. 

Hints and Methods for the use of Teachers. Hartford: Price 
25 cents. 

This volume is made up principally of selections from publications on 
methods of teaching, not easily accessible ; and under each subject dis- 
cussed, reference is made to various volumes, where additional sugges- 
tions can be found. 

The District School as it was, by one who went to it, (Rev. 
Warren Burton.) New York: J. Orville Taylor, 1838. 

In this amusing picture of "the lights and shadows" of school Ine as it 
was in New England twenty years ago, the teachers and scholars of 
gome of our District Schools as they are, will recognize the school-house, 
books, practices, and methods with which they are too familiar. 



BOOKS ON EDUCATION. 



381 



Confessions of a School-master, by Dr. William A. Alcott. New 
York: Mark H. Newman. Price 50 cents. 

If our teachers will read these confessions of errors of omission and 
commission, and the record which it gives of real excellencies attained by 
the steps of a slow and laborious progress, they will save themselves 
the mortification of the first, and realize earlier the fruits of the last. 
Few men have the moral courage to look their former bad methods so 
directly in the face. Every young teacher should read this book. 

CONTENTS. Chapter I. My Introduction to School Keeping. Section I. Prepara 
tion and Engagement. Section II. The Examination. Section III. My Cogitations. 

Chapter II. My First Year. Section I. First day of School. Section II. General Course 
of Instruction. Section III. Particular Errors. SectionYV. Religious Exercises. 

Chapter III. My Second Year. Section I. Course of Instruction. Sectionll. Serious. 
Mistakes. 

Chapter IV. My Third Year. Section I. Complaint to the Grand Jurors. Section II. 
Introduction of a New School Book. Section III. Meeting of the Schools. 

Chapter V. Fourth and Fifth Years. Section I. Modes of Punishing. Section II. At- 
tending to other Employments. Section III. Late Evening Visits. Section IV. Studies and 
Methods. 

Chapter VI. My Sixth Year. Section I. Teaching by the Year. Terms and Object. 
Section II. Description of the School and School-house. Section III. First Efforts at Im- 
provement. Punctuality. Section IV. Methods and Discipline. Section V. Schools Neglected 
by Parents. Section VI. School Libraries. Section VII. Improper Company. Example. 

Chapter VII. My Seventh Year. Section I. Divided Attention. Section II. Teaching 
on the Sabbath. 

Chapter VIII. My Eighth Year. Section I. General Account of my School. Sectionll. 
Causes of Failure. 

Chapter IX. My Ninth Year. Section I. A Novel Enterprise. Section II. Methods of 
Teaching. Discipline. 

Chapter X. My Experience as a School Visitor. Sectionl. Examination of Teachers. 
Section II. Special Visits to Schools. Section III. Mettings for Improvement. Section IV. 
Introduction of a New Reading Book. 

Chapter XI. My Tenth Year in School. Section I. Commencement of School. Sec- 
tion II. Spelling, Reading, Writing, etc. Section III. Teaching Geography. Section IV. A 
Practical Exercise. Section V. Experiment in Teaching Etymology. Section VI. Teaching 
Orthography. Section VII. Forcing Knowledge. Section VIII. Teaching Pupils to sit still. 
Section IX. My Moral Influence. Section X. My 111 Health. Section XI. Countenancing the 
Sports of my Pupils. Section XII. Discipline. 

The School Teacher's Manual, by Henry Dunn, Secretary of the 
British and Foreign School Society, London. Hartford : Reed & Bar- 
ber, 1839. pp. 223. Price 50 cents. 

The American edition of this work is edited by Rev. Thomas H. Gal- 
laudet, which is the best evidence that could be given of the general 
soundness of the views presented by the English author. 

Teachers' Institute, by W. B. Fowle. Boston. 

Teaching a Science : The Teacher an Artist, by Rev. B. R. 
Hall. New York: Baker & Scribner. 

Corporal Punishment, by Lyman Cobb. New York : Mark H. 
Newman. 

School Keeping, by an Experienced Teacher. Philadelphia : John 
Grigg, 1831. 

The School-master's Friend, with the Committee-man's Guide, by 
Theodore Dwight, Jr. pp. 360. New York, Roe Lockwood, 415, Broad- 
way, 1835. 

The Teacher, or Moral Influences in the Instruction and Govern- 
ment of the Young, by Jacob Abbott. Boston, Whipple & Damrell, No. 
9 Cornhill, Boston. Price 75 cents. 

Theory of Teaching, with a few practical Illustrations, by a Teacher., 
Boston : E. P. Peabody, 1841. pp. 128. 

District School, by J. Orville Taylor. New York: Harper & 
Brothers, 1834. 



gg2 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Lectures on Education, by Horace Mann. Secretary of the Massa- 
chusetts Board of Education. Boston: Fowle& Capen, 1845. Pp. 338. 
Price $1.00. 

This volume embraces seven lectures, most of which were delivered 
before the Annual Common School Conventions, held in the several 
counties of Massachusetts, in 1838, '39, '40, '41, and '42. They are pub- 
lished in this form at the request of the Board of Education. No man, 
teacher, committee, parent, or friend of education generally, can read 
these lectures without obtaining much practical knowledge, and without 
being fired with a holy zeal in the cause. 

CONTENTS. Lecture I. Means and Objects of Common School Education. Lecture II 
Special Preparation, a prerequisite to Teaching. Lecture III. The Necessity of Education in 
a Republican Government. Lecture IV. What God does, and what He leaves for Ma'i to do, in 
the work of Education. Lecture V. An Hsfor.cal View of Education ; showing its Dignity 
and its Degradation. Lecture VI. On District School Libraries. Lecture VII. On School Pun- 
ishments. 

Locke and Milton on Education. Boston: Gray & Brown, 1830. 

The Education of Mothers, by L. Aime-Martin. Philadelphia: 
Lea & Blanchard, 1843. 

Education and Health, by Amariah Brigham. Boston: Marsh, 
Capen & Lyon, 1843. 

Dr. Channing on Self Culture. Boston : Monroe & Co. Price 
33 cents. 

Miss Sedgwick on Self Training, or Means and Ends. New 
York : Harper & Brothers. 

These two volumes, — the first written with special reference to young 
men, and the last, to young women, should be read by all young teachers 1 
who would make their own individual character, attainments, and con- 
duct, the basis of all improvement in their profession. , 

The following works have special reference to instruction in Infant and 
Primary Schools : 

Exercises for the Senses. London: Charles Knight & Co. Pub- 
lished under the superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Use- 
ful Knowledge. 

Lessons on Objects : as given to children between the ages of six 
and eight, in a Pestalozzian School at Cheam, Sussex, by C. Mayo. 
London : Seeley, Burnside & Seeley, Fleet street, 1845. 

Lessons on Shells, as given to children between the ages of eight 
and ten, and by the author of "Lessons on Objects." London: Seeley, 
Burnside & Seeley, 1846. 

Patterson's Zoology for Schools. London. 

Model Lessons for Infant School Teachers, by the author of 
" Lessons on Objects." Parts I. and II. London : Seeley, Burnside & 
Seeley, 1846. 

Wilderspin's Infant System. London: James S. Hodgson, 112 
Fleet street. 

Wilderspin's Elementary Education. London: James S. Hodgson. 

Chambers' Educational Course, — Infant Education, from two to 
Bix years of age. Edinburgh: W. R. Chambers. 

Practical Education, by Maria Edgeworth. New York: Harper & 
Brothers, 1835. 



BOOKS ON EDUCATION. 333 

The following works will exhibit a pretty full view of the progress and 
condition of education in Europe. 

Smith's History of Education. Harper & Brothers. Price 50 
cents. 

This work is substantially an abridgement of the great German work 
of Schwartz, and is worthy of an attentive perusal, not only for its his 
torical view of the subject, but for the discussion of the general principles 
which should be recognized in every system of education. 

Biber's Memoir of Pestalozzi, and his plan of Education. London: 
I.-Souter, 1831. 

Educational Institutions of Dr. Fellenberg, with an Appendix 
containing Woodbridge's Sketches of Hofwyl. London: Longman, 
1842. 

Report on Education in Europe, by Alexander Dallas Bache. 
Philadelphia : Lydia R. Bailey, 1829. pp. 666. 

Report on Elementary Instruction in Europe, by Calvin E. 
Stowe, D. D. Boston: Thomas H. Webb & Co. Price 31 cents. 

Seventh Annual Report of the Secretary of the (Massachusetts) 
Board of Education, Hon. Horace Mann, 1843. Boston: Fowle and 
Capen. Price 25 cents. 

These three reports introduce the teacher into the school-rooms of the 
best teachers in Europe, and enable him to profit by the observations and 
experience of men who have been trained by a thorough preparatory 
course of study and practice at home, to the best methods of classification, 
instruction, and government of schools, as pursued abroad. 

Account of the Edingurgh Sessional School, Edinburgh, by 
John Wood. Boston : Monroe & Francis, 1830. 

Cousin's Report on Public Instruction in Prussia, translated 
by Sarah Austin. New York : Wiley & Long, 1835. 

Willm on the Education of the People, translated from the 
French by Prof. Nichol. Glasgow : 1847. 

Manual of the System of Primary Instruction pursued in the 
model schools of the British and Foreign School Society. London: 1839. 

Minutes of the Proceedings of the Committee of Council on 
Education, from 1838 to 1844. London : 8 vols. 

Stow's Training System, as pursued in the Glasgow Normal Semi- 
nary. Edinburgh: 1840. 

An Outline of the Methods of Teaching, in the Model School of 
the Board of National Education for Ireland. Dublin: I. S. Folds, 1840. 

Cousin's Report on Primary Instruction in Holland. London : 
1835. 

Girardtn's Report on Education in Austria, Bavaria, &c. Paris : 
1835. 

Hickson's Account of the Dutch and German Schools. London: 
Taylor and Walton, 1840. 

Introduction to the Science and Art of Education and Instruc- 
tion for Masters of Primary Schools, by B. S. Denzel, President of 
Royal Training College for School-masters at Esslingen. 6 vols. Stut- 
gard, 1839. 

This is considered the most complete German Treatise on the subject 



384 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

if 

Lectures and Proceedings of the American Institute of In- 
struction from 1830 to 1847. Eighteen volumes. Boston: Ticknor. 

These volumes embrace more than 150 lectures and essays, on a great 
variety of important topics, by some of the ablest scholars and most suc- 
cessful teachers in the country. 

CONTENTS.— Vol. I, for 1830. Introductory Discourse, by President Wayland. Lecture 
I. Physical Education, by John C. Warren, M. D. Lecture II. The Development of the In- 
tellectual Faculties, and on Teaching Geography, by James G. Carter. Lecture III. The In- 
fant School System, by William Russell. Lecture IV. The Spelling of Words, and a Rational 
Method of Teaching their Meaning, by Gideon F. Thayer. Lecture V. Lyceums and Socie- 
ties for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, by Nehemiah Cleaveland. Lecture VI. Practical 
Method of Teaching Rhetoric, by Samuel P. Neicman. Lecture VII. Geometry and Algebra, 
by F. J. Grund. Lecture VIII. The Monitorial System of Instruction, by Henry K. Oliver. 
Lecture IX. Vocal Music, by William C. Woodbridge. Lecture X. Linear Drawing, by 
Walter R. Johnson. Lecture XI. Arithmetic, by Warren Colbum. Lecture XII. Classical 
Learning, by Cornelius C. Felton. Lecture XIII. The Construction and Furnishing of School- 
Rooms and School Apparatus, by William J. Adams. 

Vol. II. for 1331. Introductory Lecture, by James Walker. Lecture I. Education of Fe- 
males, by George B. Emerson. Lecture II. Moral Education, by Jacob Abbott. Lecture 
III. Usefulness of Lyceums, by /S 1 . C. Phillips. LecturelV. Education of the Five Senses, by 
William H. Brooks. Lecture V. The Means which may be employed to stimulate the Student 
without the aid of Emulation, by John L. Parkhurst. Lecture VI. Grammar, by Goold 
Brown. Lecture VII. Influence of Academies and High Schools on Common Schools, by Wil- 
liam C. Fowler. Lecture Will. Natural History as a Branch of Common Education, by Cle- 
ment Durgin. Prize Essay on School-Houses, by W. A. Alcott. 

Vol. Ill, for 1832. — Introductory Discourse, by Francis C. Gray. Lecture I. The best 
Methods of Teaching the Living Languages, by George Ticknor. Lecture II. Some of the 
Diseases of a Literary Life, by G. Hayward, M. D. Lecture III. The Utility of Visible Illus- 
trations, by Walter R. Johnson. Lecture IV. The Moral Influences of Physical Science, by 
John Pierpont. Lecture V. Prize Essay, on the Teaching of Penmanship, by B. B. Foster. 
Lecture VI. Nature and Means of Early Education, as deduced from Experience, by A. B. 
Alcott. Lecture VII. On Teaching Grammar and Composition, by Asa Rand. 

Vol. IV, for 1S33. — Introductory Lecture, by William Sullivan. Lecture I. On the Impor- 
tance of a Knowledge of the Principles of Physiology to Parents and Teachers, by Edward 
Reynolds, M. D. Lecture II. The Classification of Schools, by Samuel M. Burnside. Lec- 
ture III. Primary Education, by Gardner B. Perry. Lecture IV. Emulation in Schools by 
Leonard Wiildngton. Lecture V. The best Method of Teaching the Ancient Languages, by 
Alpheus S. Packard. Lecture VI. Jacotot's Method of Instruction, by George W. Greene. 
Lecture VII. The best Method of Teaching Geography, by W. C. Woodbridge. Lecture VIH. 
Necessity of Educating Teachers, by Samuel R. Hall. Lecture IX. The Adaptation of Intel- 
lectual Philosophy to Instruction, by Abijah R. Baker. Lecture X. The best Mode of Teach- 
ing Natural Philosophy, by Benjamin Hale. 

Vol. V. 1834.— Introductory Lecture, by Caleb dishing. Lecture I. The best Mode of Fix 
ing the Attention of the Young, by Warren Burton. Lecture II. The Improvement which 
may be made in the Condition of Common Schools, by Stephen Farley. Lecture III. Duties 
of Parents in regard to the Schools where their Children are Instructed, by Jacob Abbott. 
Lecture IV. Maternal Instruction and Management of Infant Schools, by M. M. Carll. Lecture 
V. Teaching the Elements of Mathematics, by Thomas Sherioin. Lecture VI The Dangerous 
Tendency to Innovations and Extremes in Education, by Hubbard Winslow. Lecture VII. Un- 
ion of Manual with Mental Labor, in a System of Education, by Beriah Green. Lecture VIII. 
The History and Uses of Chemisti-y, by C. T. Jackson. Lecture IX. Natural History as a 
Study in Common Schools, by A. A. Gould, M. D. Lecture X. Science of Government as a 
Branch of Popular Education, by Joseph Story. 

Vol. VI, for 1835.— Introductory Lecture, by W. H. Furness. Lecture I. The Study of the 
Classics, by A. Crosby. Lecture II. Education for an Agricultural People, by Samuel Nott, Jr. 
Lecture III. Political Influence of Schoolmasters, by E. Washburn. Lecture IV. State and 
Prospects of the German Population of this Country, by H. Bokum. Lecture V. Religious Ed- 
ucation, by R. Park. Lecture VI. Importance of an Acquaintance with the Philosophy of the 
Mind to an Instructor, by J. Gregg. Lecture VII. Ends of School Discipline, by Henry L. 
McKean. Lecture VIII. Importance and Means of Cultivating the Social Affections among Pu- 
pils, by J. Blaachard. Lecture IX. Meaning and Objects of Education, by T. B. Fox. Lec- 
ture X. Management of a Common School, by 7'. Dwight, Jr. Lecture XI. Moral and Spirit- 
ual Culture in Early Education, by R. C. Waterston. Lecture XII. Moral Uses of the Study cf 
Natural History, by W. Channing, M. D. Lecture XIII. Schools of the Arts, by W.Johnson. 

Vol. VII., for 183*3.— Lecture 1. Education of the Blind, by Samuel G. Howe, M. D. Lec- 
ture 11. Thorough Teaching, by William H. Brooks. Lecture III. Physiology, or " The House 
I live in," by William A. Alcott. Lecture IV. Incitements to Moral and Intellectual Weil-Doing, 
by J. H. Belcher. Lecture V. Duties of Female Teachers of Common Schools, by Daniel 
Kimball. Lecture VI. Methods of Teaching Elocution in Schools, bv T. D. P. Stone. Lec- 
ture VII. Influence of Intellectual Action on Civilization, by //. R. Cleavcland. LectureYlll. 
School Discipline, by S. R. Hall. 

Vol. VIII., for 1837.— Introductory Discourse, by Rev. Elipha While. Lecturel. Study of 
the Classics, by John Mulligan. Lecture II. Moral Education, by Joshua Bates. Lecturelll. 
Study of Natural History, by John Lewis Russell. Lecture IV. Comparative Merits of Private 
and Public Schools, by Theodore Edson. Lecture V. Elocution, by David Fosdick, Jr. Lee- 



BOOKS ON EDUCATION. 335 

lure VI Relation between the Board of Trustees and the Faculty of a University, &c, by Jas- 
per Adams. Lecture VII. School Reform, or Teachers' Seminaries, by Charles Brooks. Lea- 
lure VIII. Teaching of Composition in Schools, by R. G. Parker. Lecture IX. Evils of the 
Present System of Primary Instruction, by Thomas H. Palmer. Lecture X. Reading and 
Declamation, by William Russell. 

Vol. IX, for 1838. — Lecture 1. Literary Responsibility of Teachers, by Charles White. Lec- 
ture II. The Head and the Heart ; or, The Relative Importance of Intellectual and Moral Cul- 
ture, by JElisha Bartlett. Lecture III. Vocal Music in Common Schools, by Joseph Harring- 
ton, Jr. Lecture IV. Model Schools, by Thomas D. James. Lecture V. Observations on the 
School System of Connecticut, by Denison Olmsted. Lecture VI. Teaching of English Cram- 
mar, by R. G Parker. Lecture VII. Mutual Dul ies of Parents and Teachers, by David P. 
Page. Lecture V 111. Man, the Subject of Education, by Samuel G. Goodrich. 

Vol. X, for 1S39 — Introductory Discourse, The Education of a Free People, by Robert Ran- 
tcnd, Jr. Lecture I. Physiology of the Skin, by John G. Metcalf,M. D Lecture II. Mind and 
its Developments, by Emerson Davis. Lecture III. A Classic Taste in our Common Schools, 
by Luther B. Lincoln. Lecture IV. Natural Theology as a Study in Schools, by Henry A. 
Miles. Lecture V. Division of Labor in Instruction, by Thomas Gushing, Jr. Lecture VI. The 
Claims of our Age and Country upon Teachers, by David Mack. Lecture VII. Progress of 
Moral Science, and ils Application to the Business of Practical Life, by Alexander H. Everett. 
Lecture VIII. The Comparative Results of Education, by T. P. Rodman*, Lecture IX. Physi- 
cal Education, by Abel L. Pierson, M. D. 

Vol. II. New Series, for 1840.— Lecture I. Intellectual Education in Harmony with Moral 
and Physical, by Joshua Bates. Lecture II. Results to be aimed at in School Instruction and 
Discipliie, by T. Cushing, Jr. Lecture III. Duty of Visiting Schools, by Thomas A. Greene. 
Lecture IV. Objects and Means of School Instruction, by A. B. Muzzey. LectureV. Courtesy, 
and its Connection with School Instruction, by G. F. Thayer. Lecture VI. On the Brain and 
the Stomach, by Usher Parsons, M. D. Lecture VII. Common Complaints made against 
Teachers, by Jacob Abbott. 

Vol. XII, for 1841.— Lecture I. Best Method of Preparing and Using Spelling- Books, by Hor- 
ace Mann. Lecture II. Best Method of Exercising the Different Faculties of the Mind, by Wm. 
B. Fowle. Lecturelll. Education of the Laboring Classes, by T. Parker. Lecture W. Impor- 
tance of the Natural Sciences in our System of Popular Education, by A. Gray. Lecture V. 
Moral Culture Essential to Intellectual Education, by E. W. Robinson. Lecture VI. Simpli- 
city of Character, as Affected by the Common Systems of Education, by J. S. Dwight. Lec- 
ture VII. Use of the Globes in Teaching Geography and Astronomy, by A. Fleming. Lecture 
VIII. Elementary Principles of Constitutional Law, as a Branch of Education in Common. 
Schools, by Edward A. Lawrence. 

Vol. XIII, for 1842.— Lecture I. Moral Education, by George B. Emerson. Lecture II. Uni- 
versal Language, by Samuel G. Howe. Lecture III. The Girard College, by E. C. Wines. 
Lecture IV. School Room, as an aid to Self-Education, by A. B. Muzzey. Lecture V. Moral 
Responsibility of Teachers, by William H. Wood. Lecture VI. The Teacher's Daily Prepara- 
tion. 

Vol. XIV, for 1843. — Lecture I. The Bible in Common Schools, by Hetnan Humphrey, D. D. 
Lecture II. The Classification of Knowledge, by Solomon Adams. Lecture HI. Moral Dignity 
of the Teacher's Office, by Prof. i". H Agnew. Lecture IV. A few of the •• Hows" of School- 
keeping, by Roger S. Howard. Lecture V. Advancement in the Means and Methods of Public 
Instruction, by David P. Page. Lecture VI. Reading, by C. Pierce. Lecture VII. Some of 
She Duties of the Faithful Teacher, by Alfred Greenleaf. 'Lecture VIII. Some of the Defects of 
our Systems of Education, by R. B. Hubbard. Lecture IX. Importance of our Common 
Schools, by S. J. May. 

Vol. XV, for 1844. — Lecture I. The_ Religious Element in Education, by Calvin E. Stowe.. 
Lecture II. Female Education, by William Russell. Lecture III. Some of the Obstacles to the- 
Greater Success of Common Schools, by Charles Northend. LecturelV. Some of the Dangers 
of Teachers, by Daniel P. Galloup. Lecture V. Natural History as a Regular Classic in our 
Seminaries, by Charles Brooks. Lecture VI. Classical Instruction, by A. H Weld. Lecture 
VII. School Discipline, by Joseph Hale. Lecture VIII. Methods of Teaching to Read, by Sam- 
uel S. Greene. Lecture IX. The Duty of the American Teacher, by John AT. Bellows. Lec- 
ture X. The Necessity of Education in a Republican Form of Government, by Horace Mann. 
Vol. XVI, for 1845.— Lecture I. Dignity of the Teacher's Office, by Joel Hawes, D. D. Ad- 
dress. The Formation and Excellence of the Female Character, by Joel Hawes, D. D. Lee? 
turell. The Duties of Examining Committees, by Prof. E. D. Sanborn. Lecturelll. The Per- 
fect Teacher, by Denison Olmstead. L. L. D. Lecture IV. Physiology, by Edward Jarvis, M. D. 
Lecture V. Intellectual Arithmetic, by F. A. Adams. Lecture VI. County Teachers' Institutes,, 
by Sa'em Town. Lecture VII. Geography, by William. B. Foiole. Lecture VIII. Vocal Mu- 
sic in Common Schools, by±A. N. Johnson. Lecture IX. History, by George S. Hillard. 

Vol XVII, for 1846. — Journal of Proceedings. List of Officers. Annual Report. Lee- 
lure I. Home Preparation for School, by Jason Whtima.n. Lecture II. The Influence of Moral 
upon Intellectual Improvement, by H. B. Hooker. Lecture III. The Essentials of a Common 
School Education, and the conditions most favorable to their Attainment, by Rufus Putnam. 
Lecture IV. The Education of the Faculties, and the Proper Employment of Young Children, 
by Samuel J. May. Lecture V. The Obligation of Towns to Elevate the Character of our Com- 
mon Schools, by Luther B. Lincoln. Lecture. VI. Importance of Cultivating Taste in Early 
Life, by Ariel Parish. Lecture VII. On Phonotypy and Phonography, or Speech-Writing and 
Speech-Printing, by Stephen P. Andrews. Lecture VIII. On the Study of the English Lan- 
guage, by D. Huntington. 

Vol. XVIII, for 1847.— Journal of Proceedings. List of Officers. Lecture I. On the Study 
of Language, by Hubbard Winslow. Lecture II. On the Appropriateness of Studies to the State 
of Mental Development, bv Thomas P. Rodman. 

25 



386 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Reports and Documents relating to the Common School 
System of Connecticut. Hartford : Case, Tiffany & Co. 

This Volume is made up of different numbers of the Connecticut Common School Journal, which 
contain separate documents of permanent value. It makes a large quarto volume of 400 pages, in 
double columns, and small type. Price $1.00. 

I.— DOCUMENTS CONNECTED WITH THE COMMON SCHOOLS OF CONNECTICUT, 

FROM MAY, 1838, TO MAY, 1842. 
Reports of the Board of Commissioners of Common Schools, for 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842 
Barnard's Report — Legislative Document, 1838. 

" Address of the Board of Commissioners of C. S. to the People, 1838. 

" First Annual Report to the Board of C. C. S., 1839; Second do. for 1840; Third do. for 
1841 ; Fourth do. for 1842. 

" Report on Education in other States and Countries, 1840. 

" " Public Schools in Boston, Providence, Lowell, Worcester, &c, 1841. 

" Address on School-houses in 1839. 

" Report on Public Schools of Hartford, 1841. 

" Remarks on the History and Condition of the School Laws of Connecticut, 1841. 

'• Report on the Legal Provision respecting the Education and Employment of Children in 
"Factories in various States and Countries. 

" Letter to a Committee of the Legislature on the Expenses of the Board of Commissioners, 
1841. 
Reports of School Visitors in most of the Towns in Connecticut, for 1840 to 1842. 
Summary of the Legislation of the State respecting Schools from 1647 to 1839. 
Act to provide for the better Supervision of Common Schools, passed 1838. 
Act giving additional powers to School Districts and School Societies, 1839. 
Revised Common School Act, 1841. 
Report and Act for repealing the Board of Commissioners, 1842. 

II — DOCUMENTS OR ARTICLES RESPECTING THE SCHOOL SYSTEM OF OTHER 

STATES AND COUNTRIES. 
Condition of Public Education in Scotland, Ireland, England, and Wales, from various sources. 

" " " Holland, by Prof. Bache, Cousin, and Cuvier. 

" " " Prussia, by Prof. Bache, Cousin, Wyse, and Prof. Stowe. 

" " " Duchy of Baden, and Nassau, by Prof. James. 

" " " Austria, by Prof. Turnbull and Bache. 

" " " Tuscnny, from On. Review. 

" " " Switzerland, from Journal of Education, and Prof. Bache. 

" " " Bavaria and Hanover, by Hawkins. 

" " " Saxony, by Prof. Bache. 

" " " Russia, by Prof. Stowe. 

" " " France, by Mrs. Austin and Prof. Bache. 

" " " Belgium, from Foreign Q.u. Review. 



III.— NORMAL SCHOOLS, 
History of Teachers' Seminaries. 
Essays on, by Rev. T. H. Gallaudet. 
Address respecting, by Prof. Stowe. 
Account of in Prussia, by Dr. Julius. 

" " France, by Guizot. 

" " Holland, by Cousin. 

" " Europe, by Prof. Bache. 

" " Massachusetts, by Mr. Mann. 

" " New York, by Mr. Dix. 
Normal Seminary, Glasgow. 
Teachers' Departments, New York. 



OR TEACHERS' SEMINARIES. 

State Normal School at Lexington, Mass. 
Borough Road School, London. 
Primary Normal School, at Haarlem, (Holland. 
Seminary for Teachers, at Weissenfels, Prussia 

" ' " Potsdam, " 

Primary Normal School at Stettin. 

'" " " Briihl and Neuweid. 

Normal School at Versailles, France. 
" " Kussnacht, Switzerland 

" " Beuggen, " 

" " Hofwyl, " 



IV.— ACCOUNT OF PARTICULAR SCHOOLS 
Infant Schools. 
Model Infant School, Glasgow. 
" " " London. 

Quaker Street Infant, " 
Infant School in Lombardy. 
" " Rotterdam. 



Evening Schools. — Schools of Industry, fyc. 
Evening School in London. 
School of Industry at Norwood. 
" " Ealing. 

" " Lindfield. 

" Gowers Walk. 

" Guernsey. 

" Warwick. 

" for Juvenile Offenders, Rotterdam. 
Public Schools of Various Grades. 
Primary School at the Hague. 
Intermediate School at Leyden. 
Borough Road School, London. 
Sessional School, Edinburgh. 



High School, Edinburgh. 
School for the Poor, Amsterdam. 
Primary School, Berlin. 

Dorothean High School, " 
Burgher School, " 

Higher Burgher School, Potsdam. 
Lovell's Lancasterian School, New Haven 

Schools of Agriculture, tyc, <$-e. 
City Trade School, Berlin. 
Commercial School, Leghorn. 
Agricultural School at Templemoyle. 
Institute of Agriculture, Wurtemburg. 
School of Arts, Edinburgh. 
Polytechnic Institute, Vienna. 
Technical School, Zurich 
Institute of the Arts, Berlin. 
Mechanic Institutions, London. 

" " Manchester. 

Factory Schools. 
Adult Schools. Sunday Schools. 



BOOKS ON EDUCATION, ggj 

Report on the Public Schools of Rhode Island, for 1845, 
by Henry Barnard, Commissioner of Public Schools. Providence : 
C. Burnett, Jr. 

Act for ascertaining the condition of the Public Schools, and the better management and improve- 
ment of the same. 
Circular of Governor Fenner. 
Report of Commissioner of Public Schools. 

I. Mode of ascertaining the condition of Public Schools, and other means of popular education. 

1. By personal inspection and inquiry. 2. By circulars addressed to teachers and school com- 
mittees. 3. By official returns and reports of school committees. 4. By statements in public 
meeting, 5 — 7. 

II. Measures adopted to improve the public schools under their present organization, and prepare 

the way for a more complete and efficient system of public instruction. 1. By public lectures. 

2. By conversation and letters. 3. By circulating tracts, periodicals, and documents relating 
to schools, school systems, &c. 4. By establishing a Library of Education in each town. 
5. By associations for school improvement. 6- By assisting in the selection of good teachers. 
7. By a more extensive employment of female teachers. 8. By a gradation of schools. 9. By 
teachers' associations, or institutes. 10. By an itinerating normal school agency. 11. By 
preparing the way for one normal school. 12. By making known plans of scjiool-houses. 
13. By school apparatus and library. 14. By lyceums, lectures, and library associations. 
15. By preparing the draft of school act, 7 — 16. 

HI. Defects in the former organization and administration of the system, with the outline of the 

existing organization. 1. Summary of defects. 2. Outline of the system as reorganized 
IV. Condition of the public schools, with remedies for existing defects, and suggestions for theit 
increasing usefulness. 1. Organization. 2. School-houses. 3. School attendance. 4. Clas- 
sification of schools. 5. Agricultural districts. 0. Manufacturing districts. 7. City districts. 
Appendix. — Documents referred to in the Report. 

I. Circular to Teachers, and to School Committees, ------- 81 

II. Topics of Lectures on Education, -----------85 

III. Associations for the Improvement of Public Schools, -------86 

Washington County Association, ----------86 

do. do. Teachers' Institute, ---------88 

Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, ----------89 

IV. Educational Tracts, 90 

V. Books and Pamphlets, relative to education, circulated in the State, - - - - 91 

VI. Catalogue of Books in Library of Education, --------92 

Educational Periodicals, ------------95 

VII. History and condition of the legislation of Rhode Island respecting public schools, - 97 

VIII. Draft of an act respecting public schools, with remarks explanatory of its provisions, - 113 

IX. Act relating to Public Schools, passed June, 1845, ------- J37 

X. Statistical Tables, relating to population, valuation, expenditures of the State and of the 

several towns, -------------- 149 

XI. Apportionment of the State appropriation for public schools, for 1846, - 158 

XII. School-house Architecture, -------.----- 165 

XIII- Names of different kinds of text-books used in the State, ------ 227 

XIV. Public Schools in cities and large villages, --------- 229 

XV. Rules and Regulations of School Committees, -------- 241 

do. do. Providence, ---------- 243 

Index to Report, -------------- 253 

Journal of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction: 
commenced in 1845, and discontinued in 1849. Edited by Henry 
Barnard, Commissioner of Public Schools. The set consists of three 
volumes. Price $3.50 per set. 

CONTENTS.— VOLUME I. 
Report on the Public Schools of Rhode Island for 1845, and the following articles in Extra 

Journal. PAGB 

Prospectus of Journal, -------------- j 

Circular respecting Teachers' Institutes, ---------- j 

Teachers' Institutes, origin of, ------------ 5 

Teachers' Institute at Scituate, --------- - - _ g 

Notices of Institutes and Public Meetings, ----------12 

Circular of Commissioner, ------------ -13 

Lyceums — Lectures — Libraries, ------------ jg 

Westerly Lyceum, -------- ------ ^g 

Progress of education, — Vermont, -----_.---_ 27 

" " " Massachusetts, ---------- -jg 

Teachers' Institutes, ------.------. 20 

Scituate and Foster Association, -----.---.._ 23 

Modes of school improvement, ------------25 

Books on Education, ------------- -26 

Progress of Education — Virginia, - --.---...31 

" " " Massachusetts, ---------35 



ggg SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

PASS 

Educational Tracts, - 39 

Death of Francis Dwight, --------- .... 49 

Modes of school improvement, -.---------.41 

Educated men and the education of the people, ---------40/ 

Normal school at Kruitzlingen, --------.---51 

Rules for the good behavior of Pupils, - - - - - - -- - - -54 

Notices of Public Meetings, .---------.-56 

Annual Meeting of the Institute of Instruction for 1845, --------57 

Professor Gammell's Report, ------------53 

Mr. Russell's Remarks, --------------63 

Mr. Kingsbury's Report, -------------65 

Modes of school improvement, ------------66 

Duties of Parents to their schools, -----------68 

Letter from a Teacher to his Pupil, ._.---._.. -73 

School motives and school vices, ------------81 

Teachers' meetings and associations, ----------- 86 

District School Journal of New York, ----------88 

Progress of education in other states, -----------88 

" " " in Massachusetts, ----------89 

" " " in New York, ----------- 105 

" " " in Pennsylvania, ---------- 112 

" " " in Michigan, ----------- 121 

" " " in Ohio, ----- 126 

Smithsonian Bequest, -, .- - ----------- 134 

Organization of School Districts, --------- .- 136 

Progress of education in Connecticut, ----------- 137 

History of the English Language, by E. R. Porter, -------- 153 

Adaptation of the Universe to the cultivation of the mind, by R. G. Hazard, - - - - 169 

Address on Education, by R. G. Hazard, ---------- 189 

Individual and Associated effort, ------------ 210 

A Father's Prayer for his Son, ------- -..- 211 

Index to Extra Journal, -------------- 213 

VOLUME II., FOR 1847. 
Prospectus, ---------------- 1 

Discourse before the Rhode Island Historical Society, by Hon. Job Durfee, - - - - 1 

Causes of the neglect of Public Schools in Rhode Island, ------- 33 

Origin and Repeal of the School Act of 1830, by John Howland, 37 

Condition of Education in Rhode Island, in 1828, --------38 

Debate on the School Act of 1828, 41 

Memorial from East Greenwich, -----------41 

Remarks of J. L. Tillinghast, ------ 42 

" J. J. Waterman, ----------- 45 

" — Dixon, -------------47 

E. R. Porter, - ; 48 

R T. Cranston, ------------ 48 

Condition of Public Schools of Rhode Island in 1832, --------49 

Report by Oliver Angell, -------------49 

Annual Abstract of School Returns for 1839, ---------51 

for 1844, - 53 

Debate on the School Act of 1845, - 53 

Remarks of Wilkins Updike, -------------53 

Report of School Committee of North Providence, ------ - . 57 

" Smithfield, 62 

" Cumberland, --_-.-. - - 7<> 

" " " Scituate, -----..-.-86 

School-houses, ------..----.-.-88 

Plan of Grounds for Village School, ----_, ..,--.. 90 

Plans for Schools of different grades, ----------91 

Plan of Public School in City of New York, 93 

" Primary School, -------.....96 

Report on seats without backs, ------.---.99 

Boston Primary School Chair, ---__-_../.. 100 
Plans of Normal Schools in Massachusetts, - - - - - - - - - - 101 

Brimmer Grammar School, Boston, ---------- 107 

Hints respecting Blackboards, --------.---- 109 

Boston Plan of Warming and Ventilation, --------- 112 

Condition of School-houses in Massachusetts, --------- 137 

" " New York, Vermont, Maine, &.c. ----- 139 

Second Annual Meeting of the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, - -153 

Mr. Perry's Report, -------....-.. 153 

Libraries — value of books, ------------- 163 

Origin of District School Libraries, ----------- 167 

Letter of James Wadsworth, of Genesee, New York, -------- 167 

Report of D. D.Barnard, - - 171 

The first Juvenile Library in America, -----....-- 173 

Act relating to Libraries in Rhode Island, ---------- 175 

Specimen of Constitution for Library Association, --------- 176 

Catalogue of Books for Village Libraries, ---..__..- 177 
Rules and Regulations for the use of the books of a Library, ------ -205 



BOOKS ON EDUCATION. 389 

PAGE 

Norraal Schools, -----------*--.-"-. SJfl 

State Normal Schools in Massachusetts, ----------- 212 

New York State Normal School, -- 216 

Acts relating to Public Schools in Rhode Island, - - - - - - ■ - - - 225 

Remarks on the several provisions of the same, --------- 241 

Forms for conducting proceedings under the same, --------- 262 

Form of District Return, -----.-------28 

Specimen of Rules and Regulations for School Committees, ------- 289 

Index to School Law, Remarks and Forms, ---------- 293 

Progress of Education in Ike United States for 1847, -------- 305 

Connecticut, _----___------ 305 

Prize Essay by Noah Porter, ------------ 307 

Maine, --- 328 

Massachusetts, --------------- 331 

New Hampshire, -------------- 331 

Vermont, ---------------- 332 

New York, -------- 333 

New Jersey, --------------- 333 

Report on Normal Schools, ------------ 333 

Pennsylvania, --------------- 344 

Maryland, --------------- 346 

Virginia, ---------------- 346 

Letter of S. S.Randall, 347 

Ohio, --------- 348 

Indiana, --------------- 350 

Teachers' Institute in Rhode Island for 1847, ---------- 353 

" " Centreville, -----------354 

" " Pawtucket, ------------ 361 

Progress of Teachers' Institutes in Connecticut, --------- 369 

" " New York, - 369 

" " " Massachusetts, -------- 380 

" " " Ohio, - - - - - - - - - - 382 

" New Hampshire, -------- 388 

" " " Maine, - - • - - - - - - - - 390 

" " " Michigan, - 393 ; 

u " " Vermont, 394 

" " " Rhode Island, 395 

Teachers' Meetings and Associations, ----------- 398 

Topics for discussion, &c. --------- • - - - 398 

List of Educatioual Periodicals, ------------ 399 

VOLUME III. 
Report of Commissioner of Public Schools for 1848, -------- J 

Third Annual Report of Executive Committee of Rhode Island Institute of Instruction, - - 3 
Officers for 1847, ---- .---___._-._ 

Proceedings of Third Annual Meeting, -----------13 

Remarks of Mr. Barnard, -----■---_---- 15 

" Prof. Gammell, 23 

" Rev. Mr. Osgood, ------------ 25 

" Mr. Bishop, --------------26 

Evening Schools, -- ------------28 

Documents relating to the History aisd Condition of Public Schools in Rhode Island, - - 33 

" " " " ". " Providence, - 33 

Letter of John Howland in 1824, -----------44 

Report by President Wayland in 1828, ---- 46 

Memorial of Mechanics' Association, 1837, ---------55 

Report to City Council, ------------ 57 

Ordinance of City Council, 1838, -----58 

Organization of Public Schools in 1848, ---------62 

Report of School Committee for 1838, ----------64 

" " 1839, 



1840. 
1841, 

1842. 
1843. 
1844 
1845. 
1846 
1847 
1848, 



Rules and Regulations, 1848, -___.-.,---- 84 

fieport of School Committee of North Providence, 1848, --------97 

" " " Scituate, 1848, - 103V 

" " •' Smithfield, - 108 

" " " Glocester, 1847, 122 

" u " " 1848 __.------ 126 

it u u Coventry, 1847,' 128 

«:•«'•« " 1848, 138 

a u " Warwick, 1847, 141 

* " ' '- Cumberland, 1848, 142 



39Q SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

PASB 

Report of School Committee of Burrillville, 1847, 144 

" " " Newport, 1827, 145 

" " " " 1828, - - 148 

" " " " 1844, --- !50 

» " " " 1848, ---153 

" " " Bristol, 1843, ----158 

«•«,«■" 1845, -160 

" " " " 1847, ---------163 

" " « " 1848, -171 

" " " Warren, ----------- 174 

School Architecture, -------------- 175 

Ingraham's Primary School-house, Boston, ---------- 177 

Boston and other School Furniture, ----------- 201 

ttuincy Grammar Scbool-house, ------------ 208 

Putnam Free School-house, Newburypoft, ---------- 211 

Public High Scbool-house, Hartford, ----------- 214 

Free Academy in City of New York, ----------- 223 

Culver's Furnace, ---------------230 

Public School-houses in Providence, ----------- 233 

Public High School, -------------- 253 

Plans of School-houses with Apartments for Teacher, - - ' - - - - - - 260 

Teacher's Desk, ------272 

Remarks on School-houses in Rhode Island, - - - - -- - - - 273 

Principles of School Architecture, ----------- -274 

Principles of Ventilation, ------------- 277 

Plans of School-houses with one- School-room, --------- 280 

Plan of Grounds for Infant School, -----------283 

Primary School-house in Westerly, ------------ 284 

Village School-house at Allendale, North Providence, -------- 285 

District School-house in Glocester, ------------ 286 

" " BarringtoE, - -----288 

Mott's Ventilating School Stove, ------- 290 

Boston Ventilating School Stove, ------------ 291 

District School-house in Cranston, ------------ 292 

" " at Clayville, Scituate, --------- 292 

" " at Centreville, Warv/ick, 294 

Remarks on Gradation of Schools, ----------- 296 

Public School-house in Warren, ------------ 305 

Union School-house at Woonsocket, ----------- 308 

" Chepachet, ------------309 

" "■ Pawtucket, ------ 310 

Village School-house at Centre Mill, ----------- 312 

" " Washington Village, --------- 314 

Female Seminary of Mr.. Kingsbury, Providence, -------- -315 

Chilsou's Furnace, -------------- 316 

Bushnell's •' ---------------318 

Apparatus for District Schools, ------------ 319 

" Grammar Schools, ------------ 323 

High Schools, &c. ----- - 325 

Hints respecting blackboards, ------------- 374 

Library— List of Books on Education, - - - - - -.- -- - 379 

" " " of Reference, ----------- 309 

Rules for the Care and Preservation of School-houses, -------- 391 

Dedicatory Exercises, -------------- 401 

Address of G. B. Emerson, -- 402 

" Gideon F. Tho.yer, ----- -405 

" President Wayland, - - - - - - - - - - - 408 

" Rev. Mr. Osgood, ------------ 414 

" President Everett, ----------- 419 

Remarks on Libraries in Rhode Island, ----------- 425 

History and Catalogue of Pawcatuck Library Association, ------- 429 

General Index to Vols. I., II. and HI., - 549 

2. Books of Reference. 
A list of Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and similar works, for reference by the teacher, 
and consultation in the school-room or library, is given on page 45. 

3 — 4. Catalogue qf Books foe Juvenile and Abtjlt Reading. 
Committees will be aided in selecting books for District, Town, and Circulating 
Libraries, by consulting the Catalogue of the Pawcatuck library, on page 429 — 548. 
Although the author of this treatise is responsible generally for this selection, which 
was made for a village library, and for all classes, of readers, yet there are several 
volumes in the catalogue which were the donations of individuals, and others which were 
purchased because bound up with sets, the mass of which were unexceptionable. For a 
School Library,, many of these volumes would be deemed unsuitable. 



care of school-houses. 391 

Rules for the Care and Preservation of School-Houses. 

The following provisions are included among the Regulations for the 
Government of Teachers and Pupils of Public Schools, adopted by School 
Committees in most of the towns of Rhode Island: 

For Teachers: 
There shall be a recess of at least fifteen minutes in the middle of every 
half day ; but the primary schools may have a recess of ten minutes every hour : 
at the discretion of the teacher. 

It shall be the duty of teachers to see that fires are made, in cold weather, in 
their respective school-rooms, at a seasonable hour to render them warm and 
comfortable by school time ; to take care that their rooms are properly swept 
and dusted; and that a due regard to neatness and order is observed, both in 
and around the school-house. 

As pure air of a proper temperature is indispensable to health and comfort, 
teachers cannot be too careful in giving attention to these things. If the room 
has no ventilator, the doors and windows should be opened before and after 
school, to permit a free and healthful circulation of air; and the temperature 
should be regulated by a thermometer suspended, five or six feet from the floor, 
in such a position as to indicate as near as possible the average temperature, 
and should be kept about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. 

The teachers shall take care that the school-houses, tables, desks, and appa- 
ratus in the same, and all the public property entrusted to their charge, be not 
cut, scratched, marked, or injured and defaced in any manner whatever. And 
it shall be the duty of the teachers to give prompt notice to one or more of the 
trustees, of any repairs that may be needed. 

For Pupils : 
Every pupil who shall, accidentally or otherwise, injure any school property, 
whether fences, gates, trees or shrubs, or any building or any part thereof; or 
break any window glass, or injure or destroy any instrument, apparatus or fur- 
niture belonging to the school, shall be liable to pay all damages. 

Every pupil who shall any where, on or around the school premises, use or 
write any profane or unchaste language, or shall draw any obscene pictures or 
representations, or cut, mark, or otherwise intentionally deface any school fur- 
niture or buildings, or any property whatsoever belonging to the school estate, 
shall be punished in proportion to the nature and extent of the offence, and 
shall be liable to the action of the civil law. 

No scholar of either sex shall be permitted to enter any part of the yard or 
buildings appropriated to the other, without the teacher's permission. 

Smoking and chewing tobacco in the school-house or upon the school prem- 
ises, are strictly prohibited. 

The scholars shall pass through the streets on their way to and from school 
in an orderly and becoming manner; shall clean the mud and dirt from their 
feet on entering the school-room: and take their seats in a quiet and respectful 
manner, as soon as convenient after the first bell rings; and shall take proper 
care that their books, desks, and the floor around them, are kept clean and in 
good order. 

It is expected that all the scholars who enjoy the advantages of public schools, 
will give proper attention to the cleanliness of their persons, and the neatness 
and decency of their clothes — not only for the moral effect of the habit of neat- 
ness and order, but that the pupils may be at all times prepared, both in con- 
duct and external appearance — to receive their friends and visitors in a respect- 
able manner; and to render the school-room pleasant, comfortable and happy 
for teachers and scholars. 

In the " Regulations of the Public Schools in the city of Providence" 
it is made the duty " of the principal teacher in each school-house, for the 
compensation allowed by the Committee, to employ some suitable person 
to make the fires in the same when necessary, and to see that this import- 
ant work is properly and economically done ;" also " for the compensation 



gg2 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

allowed, to employ some suitable person to sweep the room and its entries 
daily, and dust the blinds, seats, desks, and other furniture in the same, 
and to clean the same once a quarter, and to see that this work is neatly 
and properly done." 

The teachers must also " take care that the school-houses, the appara- 
tus in the same, and all the public property entrusted to their charge, be 
not defaced, pr otherwise injured by the scholars, and to give prompt 
notice to the Superintendant of any repairs and supplies that may be 
needed." 

Practical Suggestions respecting Ventilation, Fires, Sweep- 
ing and Dusting. 
The following suggestions are taken from the Manual of the System of 
Discipline and Instruction for the Schools of the Ptsblic School Society of 
New York: 

VENTILATION. 

Strict attention should be paid to all the means provided for temperature and 
ventilation. During the season of fires, the thermometer should be watched, — 
and the ventilating flues, windows, doors, and stoves, should be constantly at- 
tended to, — and every precaution taken, to give as pure an atmosphere to the 
school-room, as circumstances will allow. This is not only necessary, for a 
proper and free exercise of the physical powers, — but it will be found greatly to 
influence every mental exercise; for, both will partake of either languor, or 
vigor, according as ventilation is neglected, or duly attended to. In warm 
weather, the upper sashes should be down during school hours, and allowed to 
remain open about four inches during the night, — except, that on occasion of a 
storm, the windows against which it beats, may be closed. In winter, except- 
ing when the weather is exceedingly eold and piereing, it may be of advantage 
to have two or more of the upper sashes down about, an inch during the night; 
but these as well as the doors should be closed before kindling the fires. Two 
or more of the upper sashes should be drawn down at the end of the first half 
hour after opening school, — and again, for a short time at each successive half 
hour, — and whenever the thermometer rises to 70 degrees. At all seasons, the 
windows and doors should be thrown wide open for a few minutes during each 
recess, while the scholars are in the yard. The teacher should be careful to 
require all the scholars to go out, except such as may reasonably be excused on 
account of infirmity or sickness; and even these should be required to change 
their places, and to exercise themselves by walking to and fro in the school-room. 
At all seasons, at the close of school, all the doors and windows should be 
opened for a few minutes, in order that a pure atmosphere may be admitted 
and retained during the noon-time recess, or at night. A thermometrical diary 
must be kept during the winter season, and the temperature of the room noted 
at the opening, middle, and close, of each daily session. Further directions on 
this point are given in the instructions for making fires. The window-blinds 
and curtains are for the purpose of guarding against the sunshine, or observa- 
tion from without. They should, therefore, be so managed, as only to exclude 
the direct rays of the sun, and kept. open or shut accordingly. When required 
as a screen from observation, they should extend no farther than necessary for 
that purpose. Attention to these rules will give an air of cheerfulness within, 
so congenial to the young. It is important that this fact be impressed on all — 
that air, and light, are grand essentials in a school-room : let the first be freely 
admitted, and the second never causelessly excluded. 

FIRES. 

The ashes should be taken from the stoves in the morning only, leaving a 
layer of one inch in depth : then to proceed to bru'ld with the materials after the 
following manner: Place one large stick on each side; in the space between 
them, place the kindling wood ; and above it, the small wood, somewhat cross- 
"wise ; then, set fire to the kindling, and close the stove door. See that the 



CARE OF SCHOOL-HOUSES. 



393 



draught is cleared of ashes, or other obstructions ; and that the dampers are 
properly adjusted; (these are generally so arranged as to open the draught 
when the handle is parallel with the pipe). If the materials have been laid ac- 
cording tc the foregoing directions, the combustion will be free. Should the 
temperature of the room be as low as 40°, fill the stove with wood. Under or- 
dinary circumstances, in thirty-five minutes the' temperature will be raised to 
60 degrees, — at which point it should certainly be, at the time of opening school ; 
when the stove may be supplied with one or two large sticks. At all times, be- 
fore supplying wood, draw forward the brands and coals with the fire-hook. If 
there should be too much fire, open the stove door, and if necessary, turn the 
damper, — or, what may be better for economy, effectually close the draft at the 
stove door with ashes. By attention to all these directions,* the temperature 
may be maintained, the wood entirely consumed, and the thermometer stand at 
60 degrees, at the close of the school ; which is desirable in cold weather, so as 
not to subject the pupils to too sudden a change of temperature on going into 
the open air. The evaporating pan should be kept clean, and filled with water 
when in use. In damp rooms it is not needed, — nor in damp weather : — but it 
should be emptied; and wiped dry, before it is set aside. 

DUSTING AND SWEEPING. 

For a large room, or one department of a Public School building, six brooms 
will -be foimd sufficient to be in use. When half worn, they will serve for 
sweeping the yard; and when well worn down in that service, will still be use- 
ful for scrubbing, with water or sand; and, if properly used by the sweepers, 
will be evenly worn to the last. Before sweeping, pull down the upper sashes, 
and raise the under ones. Let the sweepers be arranged, one to each passage 
between the desks, — and, beginning at the windward side, sweep the dirt before 
them, till it is carried forward to the opposite side of the room. The broom 
should rest square on the floor, and, with the motion used in raking hay, should 
be drawn towards the sweeper, without flirting it outwards, or upwards, which 
raises unnecessary dust, and wears the broom irregularly. The dirt, when 
taken up, should be carried into the middle of the street. The dusting is to be 
done in the same regular manner, allowing a suitable interval after sweeping. 
If at noon, dusting should be done shortly before school time; if at night, dust 
the next morning. In out-door sweeping, the same rule is to be followed — the 
sweepers going in ranks, and sweeping from the windward. Let the scrubbing 
be done by a similar method. When once acquainted with these methodical 
plans, the cleaners will do the work, not only more effectually, but with more 
satisfaction and ease to themselves — and being a part of domestic economy, it 
will be, so far, an advantage to understand how to do it well. 

Although not strictly within the design of this work, but as closely con- 
nected with habits of neatness and order, we insert from the Manual quo- 
ted above, the following directions for delivering, holding, and returning 
a book. 

The Manual is soon to be enlarged, and well deserves a place in every 
teacher's library, although it has special reference to the organization and 
system of instruction adopted in the schools of the Public School Society. 

* From a return recently made out respecting the quantity and cost of fuel used in the dif- 
ferent schools of the Public School Society, it appears that the average cost of wood for a house 
like No. 17, (plans and description of which maybe seen on p. 100,) having 13 stoves, including 
cartage, sawing, carrying in and piling, is $160. The lowest cost is $141, and the highest, $200. 
In a Primary house, (like that described on page 103,) having four stoves, the average cost is $33 ; 
the highest being $40, and the lowest $25. The difference in the cost is mainly to be attributed 
to the difference in the care and oversight of the fire by the teacher. 

With a view of correcting the evil, the committee having charge of this business have pre- 
pared a table which exhibits at one view the quantity of wood furnished to each school, so as 
to enable every teacher to compare himself with every other in this particular. 

The cost of heating a Primary building of the same size, by wood in a furnace, is $75, and of 
Ward school building, of the same size as No. 17, by coal in a furnace, is $260. 



394 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

Book Manual. 

2. 3. 





The pupil should stand erect, — his heels near together, — toes turn- 
ed out, — and his eyes directed to the face of the person speaking to 
him. 

Figure one represents the Book Monitor with a pile of books 
across his left arm, with the backs from him, and with the top of the 
page to the right hand. 

Figure two represents the Book Monitor, with the right hand 
hands the book to the Pupil, who receives it in his right hand, with 
the back of the book to the left ; and then passes it into the left hand, 
where it is held with the back upwards, and with the thumb ex- 
tended at an angle of forty-five degrees with the edge of the book, 
(as in figure 2,) until a further order is given. 



BOOK MANUAL. 



395 



Figure three — When the page is given out, the book is turned 
by the thumb on the side ; and, while held with both hands, is turned 
with the back downwards, with the thumbs meeting across the leaves, 
at a point judged to be nearest the place to be found. On opening 
the book, the left hand slides down to the bottom, and thence to the 
middle, where the thumb and little finger are made to press on the 
two opposite pages. If the Pupil should have thus lit upon the page 
sought for, he lets fall the right hand by the side, and his position is 
that of Fig. 3. 

Figure four — But, if he has opened short of the page required, 
the thumb of the right hand is to be placed near the upper corner of 
the page, as seen in Fig. 4 ; while the forefinger lifts the leaves to 
bring into view the number of the page. If he finds that he has not 
raised enough, the forefinger and thumb hold those already raised, 
while the second finger lifts the leaves, and brings them within the 
grasp of the thumb and finger. When the page required is found, all 
the fingers are to be passed under the leaves, and the whole turned at 
once. Should the Pupil, on the contrary, have opened too far, and 
be .obliged to turn back, he places the right thumb, in like manner, 
on the left-hand page, and the leaves are lifted as before described. 

Figure five — Should the book be old, or so large as to be weari- 
some to hold, the right hand may sustain the left, as seen in Fig. 5. 

Figure six and seven — While reading, as the eye rises to the top 
of the right-hand page, the right hand is brought to the position seen 
in Fig. 4 ; and, with the forefinger under the leaf, the hand is slid 
down to the lower corner, and retained there during the reading of 
this page, as seen in Fig. 6. This also is the position in which the 
book is to be held when about to be closed ; in doing which, the left 
hand, being carried up to the side, supports the book firmly and un- 
moved, while the right hand turns the part it supports over on the left 
thumb, as seen in Fig. 7. The thumb will then be drawn out from 
between the leaves, and placed on the cover ; when the right hand 
will fall by the side, as seen in Fig. 2. 

Figure eight — But, if the reading has ended, the right hand re- 
tains the book, and the left hand falls by the side, as seen in Fig. 8. 
The book will now be in a position to be handed to the Book Monitor; 
who receives it in his right hand, and places it. on his left arm, with 
the back towards his body. The books are now in the most suitable 
situation for being passed to the shelves or drawers, where, without 
being crowded, they should be placed with uniformity and care. 

In conclusion, it may be proper to remark, that however trivial 
these minute directions may appear to some minds, it will be found 
on experience, that books thus treated, may be made to last double 
the time that they will do, under the usual management in schools. 
Nor is the attainment of a correct and graceful mode of handling a 
book, the only benefit received by the pupil. The use of this man- 
ual is calculated to beget a love of order and propriety, and disposes 
him more readily to adopt the habit generally, of doing things in a 
methodical and systematic manner. 



396 school architecture. 

Regulations of Chauncy-Hall School, Boston. 

The following Regulations of one of the hest conducted Private Schools 
for Boys in New England, will furnish useful hints to teachers in framing 
regulations for their own schools, especially in reference to the good be- 
havior of the pupils, and to the care of the school-room, furniture, &c. 

REQUISITION. 

Boys are required to be punctual at school. 

To scrape their feet on the scraper, and to wipe them on every mat they pass 
over on their way to the hall. 

To hang their hats, caps, coats, &c, on the hooks appropriated to them re- 
spectively, by loops prepared for the purpose. 

To bow gracefully and respectfully on entering and leaving the hall, and any 
recitation room when a teacher is present. 

To take their places on entering the hall. 

To make no unnecessary noise within the walls of the building, at any time 
of night or day. 

To keep their persons, clothes, and shoes clean. 

To carry and bring their books for study, in a satchel. 

To quit the neighborhood of the school in a quiet and orderly manner, im- 
mediately after dismissal. 

To bring notes for absence, dated, and signed by persons authorized to do so, 
and stating the duration of the absence ; also, notes for tardiness, and for occa- 
sions when pupils are wanted at home before the regular hour of dismissal. 

To study lessons at home, except when inconvenient to the family — in such 
cases to bring a certificate of the fact in writing. 

To present a pen by the feather end; a knife, by its handle; a book, the right 
side upward to be read by the person receiving it. 

To bow on presenting or receiving any thing. 

To stand while speaking to a teacher. 

To keep all books clean, and the contents of desks neatly arranged. 

To deposite in desks all books (except writing books,) slates, pencils, rulers, 
&c, before dismissal. 

To give notice through the school Post Office, of all books, slates, &c, 
missing. 

To pick up hats, caps, coats, pens, slips, books, &c, found on the floor, and 
put them in their appropriate places. 

To replace lost keys, books, &c, belonging to the school, and make good all 
damage done by them. 

To write all requests on their slates, and wait until called. 

To close desks and fasten them before quitting school for the session. 

To raise the hand as a request to speak across the hall or any recitation 
room 

To show two fingers when a pen is wanted. 

To put all refuse paper, stumps of pens, &c, in the dust box. 

To be accountable for the condition of the floor nearest their own seats. 

To fill all vacant time with ciphering, as a general occupation; and to give 
notice to the teacher, before dismissal, in case of omitting the exercise wholly 
on any day. 

To be particularly vigilant, when no teacher is in the hall. 

To promote as far as possible, the happiness, comfort, and improvement oi 
others. 

To follow every class-mate while reading, and correct all errors discovered 
in pronunciation, emphasis, or inflection. 

To point the fore finger of the left hand, at each letter or figure of the slip 01 
copy, while writing, and the feather of the pen towards the right shoulder. 

To keep the writing book square in front. 

To rest the body on the left arm, while spelling, and keep the eye directed 
towards their own slates. 

To sit erectly against the back of the chairs, during the singing lessons, an# 
to direct their attention to the instructor. 



REGULATIONS OF CHAUNCY-HALL SCHOOL. 39,7 

Transferrers to show reports finished as early in the week as 3 o'clock on 
Tuesday, P.M. 

PROHIBITIONS. 

Boys are forbidden to buy or sell, borrow or lend, give, take, or exchange, 
any thing, except fruit or other eatables, without the teacher's permission. 

To read any book in school except such as contain the reading lesson of his 
class. 

To have in his possession at school any book without the teacher's knowledge. 

To throw pens, paper, or any thing whatever on the floor, or out at a window 
or door. 

To go out to play with his class when he has had a deviation. 

To spit on the floor. 

To climb on any fence, railing, ladder, &c, about the school-house. 

To scrawl on, blot, or mark slips. 

To mark, cut, scratch, chalk, or otherwise disfigure, injure, or defile, any por- 
tion of the building or any thing connected with it. 

To take out an inkstand, meddle with the contents of another's^ desk, or un- 
necessarily open or shut his own. 

To write without using a card and wiper. 

To quit school without having finished his copy. 

To use a knife, except on the conditions prescribed. 

To remove class lists from their depositories. 

To meddle with ink unnecessarily. 

To study home lessons in school hours. 

To leave the hall at any time without leave. 

To pass noisily, or upon the run, from one room to another, or through the 
entries. 

To visit the office, furnace room, or any closet or teacher's room, except in 
class, without a written permit. 

To play at paw paw any where, or any game within the building. 

To play in the play-ground before school. 

To leave whittlings or other rubbish in the play-ground, on the side-walk, or 
around the building. 

To go out of the play-ground in school hours. 

To carry out his pen on his ear. 

To use any profane or indelicate language. 

To nick-name any person. 

To press his knees, in sitting, against a form. 

To leave his seat for any purpose, but to receive class instruction. 

To go home, when deficient, without having answered to his name. 

To indulge in eating or drinking in school. 

To go out in class, after having been out singly ; or going out singly, to linger 
below to play. 

To waste school hours by unnecessary talking, laughing, playing, idling, 
standing up, turning round, teazing, or otherwise calling off the attention of 
another boy. 

To throw stones, snow-balls, or other missiles about the neighborhood of the 
school. 

To bring bats, hockey sticks, bows and arrows, or other dangerous play-things 
to school. 

To visit a privy in company with any one. 

To strike, kick, push, or otherwise annoy his associates or others. 

In fine, to do any thing that the law of love forbids — that law which requires 
us To do to others as we would think it right that they should do to us. 

These regulations are not stated according to their relative importance, but 
as they have been adopted or called to mind. They are intended to meet gen- 
eral circumstances, but may be waived in cases of necessity, by special permis- 
sion, obtained in the prescribed mode. 

In a Lecture, on Courtesy, delivered before the American Institute of 
Instruction at Boston, in August, 1840, Mr. Thayer, the Principal of the 
Chauncy Hall School, introduced the above regulat : ons as the topics of 



393 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

his discourse. We extract portions of this admirable lecture, which may 
be found entire in the annual volume of the American Institute, published 
in 1842, and in the Massachusetts Common School Journal, Vol. II, for 
1840. 

Scraping the feel at Hie door, and wiping them on the mats. This should be insisted 
on as one of the most obvious items in the code of cleanliness. It is not only 
indispensable to the decent appearance of a school room, but, if neglected, a 
large quantity of soil is carried in on the feet, which, in the course of the day, 
is ground to powder, and a liberal portion inhaled at the nostrils, and otherwise 
deposited in the system, to its serious detriment. Besides, if the habit of neg- 
lecting this at school is indulged, it is practiced elsewhere ; and the child, en- 
tering whatever place he may, shop, store, kitchen, or drawing room, carries 
along with him his usual complement of mud and dirt ; and the unscraped and 
unwiped feet are welcome nowheie, among persons a single grade above the 
quadruped race. 

I may be told, it is a matter little attended to by many adult persons of both 
sexes. To which I would reply, in the language of Polonius, 

" 'T is true — 't is pity ; 

And pity 't is — 't is true." 

But this, instead of being an argument in favor of the non-observance of the 
wholesome rule in our schools, only points more emphatically to the duty of 
teachers in relation to it; for when, unless during the school-days, are such 
habits to be corrected, and better ones established! 

I am fully aware of the difficulty of carrying rules like this into execution, 
even among children of double the age of those that form the schools of some 
who hear me; and do not forget how much this difficulty is increased by the 
tender age, and consequently greater thoughtlessness, of most of the pupils of the 
schools usually taught by females; but still, much may be done by proclaiming 
the rule, and placing at the school entrance one of the elder scholars, to remind 
the others of it, and see that it is observed, until the cleanly habit be established. 

In the school above alluded to, the rule has grown into so general observance, 
that the discovery of mud on the stairs or entry leads immediately to the inquiry, 
whether any stranger has been in. For, though few carry the habit with them, 
all are so trained by daily drilling, that it soon becomes as difficult to neglect it, 
as it was at first to regard it. 

Hanging up on the hooks, caps, outer garments, cf-c, by loops. It is not every 
school that is provided with hooks or pegs for children's caps, garments, &c. 
All, however, should be so provided with as much certainty as seats are fur- 
nished to sit upon. It not only encourages the parents to send the children in 
comfortable trim, but induces the children to take better care of their things, 
especially if a particular hook or peg be assigned to each individual pupil. It 
is one step in the system of order, so essential to the well-being of those des- 
tined to live among fellow-men. If dependent on the attention of mothers at 
home, I am aware that many children would often be destitute of the loops 
spoken of; but the children themselves could supply these, under the teacher's 
supervision ; for I understand the use of the needle is taught, in many schools, 
to the younger pupils of both sexes, and has been found a very satisfactory 
mode of filling up time, which, among the junior classes, would otherwise be 
devoted to idleness. 

The next in order is, on keeping clean the person, clothes, and shoes. This, 
I am aware, must cost the teacher a great deal of labor to enforce; for if sent 
from home in a clean condition, the chances are more than two to one, that, on 
reaching school, a new ablution will be necessary. And in how many families 
this business of ablution is rarely attended to at all, with any fidelity ; and as 
to clean clothes and shoes, if insisted on, the answer might he in some such 
pleasant and laconic language as this : " He ought to be thankful that he can 
get any clothes, without all this fuss, as if he were dressing for a wedding or a 
coronation !" Still, the rule is a good one, and should be enforced, as far as prac- 
ticable. Water can at least be had; and if a child seems a stranger to its ap- 
plication, ofte or two of the elder scholars should be sent out, as is the practice 
in some European schools, to introduce it to him, and aid him in using it. And 
if you can arouse him to feel some pride in keeping his dress and person clean, 



REGULATIONS OF CHAUNCY HALL SCHOOL. 



399 



and his shoes well polished, or at least, in keeping them free of mud, jou teach 
him a lesson of self-respect, lhat may prove his temporal salvation, and bring 
him to be, when out of school, instead of the squalid vagrant, a companion of 
pilferers and refugees from justice, the incipient worthy member of society, and 
perhaps a benefactor of his race. It is amazing to reflect how very slight a 
circumstance in the life of a human being, in the early stages, sometimes casts 
him on that tide, which leads to glory or to infamy ! 

Some one of note has said, that *' he considers cleanliness as next to godli- 
ness ;" and I have been accustomed to look upon one, thoroughly clean in the 
outward man, as rfecessarily possessing a clean heart, a pure spirit. Whether 
it may be adopted as a rule of judgment or not, need not now be decided. The 
claims of cleanliness are, without considering the deduction as infallible, too 
commanding to be resisted, and should ever be maintained. 

The fourth relates to quitting the neighborhood of the school, on being dis- 
missed. This is desirable for the safety of the children ; it removes them to 
some extent, from temptation, and aids in the fulfillment of the reasonable ex- 
pectations of parents, that their children will be at home at the appointed hour. 
It is a practical lesson in punctuality, which, as the young come into life, will 
be found of great service to them. It may be ranked with behavior, and con- 
sidered as among those things which constitute the character of a good child." 
It is especially due to the families residing in the vicinity of the school. Do 
what you may to prevent annoyance, it is scarcely possible for a large school 
to be an agreeable neighbor to families within its hearing. They are subject 
to its petty disturbances, in all states of health and sickness, in trouble and in. 
joy; and are surely entitled to the relief afforded by dismissal and sending the 
children to their homes. Shouting, screaming, and yelling, should be prohibited, 
and the children directed to go away in. a quiet and orderly manner. Surely, 
every principle of courtesy, of kindness, and good neighborhood, demands it, 
and should not demand in vain. Who has not waited with the operations of 
some of the senses suspended, for the periodical abatement of an intolerable 
nuisance, and felt, in due time, all the joy of the anticipated relief"? 

" Every boy to be accountable for the condition of the floor nearest his seat ;" 
that is. he is not to allow any thing, whether valuable or not, to lie on the floor, 
and, consequently, every thing contemplated in the preceding rule, as far as any 
individual's vicinity is concerned, is taken care of. and all worthless articles 
likewise removed. This making committee-men of all the pupils must have a 
very good effect on the condition of the school room, and promote that neatness 
and order, which are above recommended. 

The next rule requires the pupils to be particularly quiet and diligent, when 
the teacher is called out of the room. This I regard as of very great conse- 
quence ; for it involves a sentiment of magnanimity, which it should be the aim 
of all guardians of the young to implant, to develop, and to cherish. Children 
often infringe school regulations, and much is to be overlooked in them, espe- 
cially when at a very tender age. Their little minds are scarcely able to en- 
tertain, for a long time together, the influence of many rules, except under the 
excitement of great hope or fear; and when the teacher is present, they often 
unconsciously offend, and should be judged with clemency; but when left as 
their own keepers, they should be early made to understand how discourteous, 
how dishonorable, how base, it is to transgress the laws of the school. Each 
should vie with each in good example, and thus convince the instructor, that 
confidence reposed in them can never be abused. 

The last item, under the head of Requisitions, is this : " To promote, as far as 
possible, the happiness, comfort, and improvement, of others." If to the few 
exclusively moral and religious obligations, those of courtesy be added, this re- 
quisition cannot fail of being observed. I say, exclusively or strictly moral, be- 
cause the notion of courtesy hardly enters the mind, when we speak of moral 
conduct; and yet, in nearly all the minor points, and in most which affect the 
happiness of others, in our ordinary intercourse with them, apart from the trans- 
actions of business, it is courtesy that influences us most. It maybe denomina- 
ted the benevolence of behavior. Aware I am that a hypocrite may be courteous : 
and hypocrisy in a child is inexpressibly loathsome. But hypocrisy is not a 
necessary attendant on courtesy. One may be as courteous as Lafayette, and 
yet as pure and upright as Washington. If, then, school-boys are kind-hearted 



400 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

and friendly to their mates, and evince it towards them in theii manners, they 
will, by their example as well as by their words, fulfill the injunction of the rule. 

The " Prohibitions" are in the same spirit as the requisitions, and seem to be 
much the same in substance, although thrown into a negative form of speech. 
The first is in these words : " No boy to throw pens, paper, or any thing what- 
ever, on the floor, or out at a window or door." This refers to a voluntary act 
of the pupil, — the rule requiring boys to pick up whatever is found on the floor 
to those accidental scatterings, for which one would not be culpable. The pro- 
hibition is founded on that necessity for order and neatness, which must ever be 
maintained in a well-conducted institution, to whatever object, worthy of atten- 
tion, it may be devoted. And this is urged thus repeatedly, because of the in- 
effable importance of first s'eps. Begin right, should be the motto and rallying 
word of every nursery and every school. 

Spitting on the floor. This topic I would willingly avoid, but fidelity to my 
charge forbids it. The practice, disgusting as it is, is too prevalent in many ot 
the families that furnish pupils, for your schools, to be overlooked, or winked 
out of sight ; and if the children could carry home new notions in regard to it, 
I am sure you would have furnished a good lesson to their parents. 

The habits of large portions of society demand a reform. It is futile to ex- 
pect any general amendment in those who have grown old in given practices ; 
but with the children, those whose habits are, to a great extent, yet unformed; 
much may be done. And although the counteracting influences of home mili- 
tate against your wholesome requisitions, happy is it for us, that a goodly por- 
tion of New England respect for teachers still remains, to give authority and 
weight to your well-founded and reasonable rules. In many, if not in most, 
families, of our own countrymen, the fact that the ' school-ma'am' said so, is 
sufficient to make the rule promulgated binding on the parents; the mother, es- 
pecially, will exert her authority and influence on the teacher's side ; and if the 
teacher possesses the qualities of judgment, discretion, a proper consideration 
for the circumstances of the families to which her children belong, to guide her 
in the adoption of her regulations, she will be able to exert a power for good, 
within the sphere of her daily duties, which will continue to be felt and acknow- 
ledged, long after she shall have rendered her final account. 

Marking, cutting, scratching, chalking, on the school-house, fence, walls, <^c, are 
forbidden, as connected with much that is low, corrupting," and injurious to the 
property and rights of others. They are the beginnings in that course of de- 
basing follies and vices, for which the idle, the ignorant, and profane, are most 
remarkable ; the first steps in that course of degradation and impurity, by which 
the community is disgraced, and the streams of social intercourse polluted. 
You mark the track of its subjects as you would the trail of a savage maraud- 
ing party, by its foul deeds and revolting exploits ; as you would the path of the 
boa constrictor, in its filthy slime, which tells that man's deadly enemy is abroad. 
And we are called on, by every consideration of duty, to ourselves, to our off- 
spring, and to our race, to arm against this tremendous evil, this spiritual bohon 
upas, which threatens so wide-spread a moral death. 

We cannot escape the evidences of this, which assail us on every hand, some- 
times on the very walls of our school-houses and churches ; but especially in 
places removed from public view, where the most schocking obscenity of lan- 
guage is displayed, to poison the youthful mind, illustrated by emblems, which, 
in the words of one who deeply mourns with us over the existence of this mon- 
strous evil, this desolating curse, "would make a heathen blush!" These fright- 
ful assaults on decency demand reform. The deep, low murmur of insulted 
humanity will, I doubt not, unless this evil be checked, ascend to the tribunal 
of Eternal Purity, and invoke the malediction of our Judge, which may yet be 
displayed in the blasting of our fair land, like another Sodom ! To avert so 
deplorable a catastrophe, let the thousands of the good and virtuous in youi 
midst, formed into one indomitable phalanx, take the noble stand which belongs 
to them, and never abandon it, till the enemy be forever vanquished ; forevei 
banished from the now polluted, but ever to be cherished, land of the Pilgrims ! 

By these practices, the mind acquires such a hankering after, and morbid 
relish for mischief, that no tree, or shrubbery, or flowers, or public embellish- 
ments, or exhibitions of art or taste, however beautiful or expensive, are sacred 
from the marring or destructive touch. A sensibility to the beautiful needs to 
oe cultivated among us ; and mav easily be done with the young, if a propei 



REGULATIONS OF CHAUNCY-HALL SCHOOL. 401 

and sincere value be placed upon it by ourselves, and the children see that our 
admiration is a reality. It exists much more generally in continental Europe, 
than in our own country. There, the decorations of public walks, parks, and 
gardens ; the galleries of the arts, and the magnificent structures which adorn 
their cities, are looked at, enjoyed, admired, by all classes; and rarely, indeed, 
is the Vandal hand of mischief or destruction found to desecrate these monu- 
ments of a nation's refinement. But how is it with us 1 No sooner has the 
artist given the last touch to the fluted column, than some barbarian urchin 
chips off a wedge of it, in wanton sport. How often is our indignation excited 
by the painter's boy, who, as he passes the newly-erected dwelling or recently- 
painted wall, daubs it with his black paint-brush, for yards in length, as he 
saunters heedlessly along. And what more common, in almost all public build- 
ings, in cupolas, observatories, &c, especially, for persons, apprehensive of be- 
ing forgotten by posterity, than to cut out their names or their initials, as if this 
were their only road to immortality ! 

The use of knives is the thing next prohibited. In mere primary schools, this 
rule, and the one last mentioned, would find, perhaps, little to do. Some, how- 
ever, there are, I doubt not, even in such schools, who suffer from the too free 
use of knives, as their forms, desks, or benches, could testify. Nothing is more 
fascinating to a boy than a knife. And what pleasure can there be in possess- 
ing a knife, if one may not use if? Hence the trouble occasioned by the instru- 
ment. He early learns in imitation of his ciders if not his betters, that wood was 
made to be cut. and that the mission of a knife is. to do the work. 
' This topic can hardly be thought out of place, b}'- those who will look into 
the recitation-rooms of almost any of our colleges, where many a dunce, un- 
worthy of any degree, soon, by his dexterity in this department, lays claim to 
that of master of the art, — of hacking ; " and has his claim allowed." 

I have already adverted to the whittling propensities of our people ; but, with 
your permission, I will add a remark or two, with a view to placing this naiion- 
al peculiarity in a stronger light. So proverbial have we become, among for- 
eigners, in this respect, that, if a Yankee is to be represented on the stage, you 
find him with a jackknife in one hand, and in the other a huge bit of pine tim- 
ber, becoming every moment smaller, by r his diligent handiwork. If he is talk- 
ing, arguing, or, more appropriately, if he is driving a bargain, you find him 
plying this, his wonted trade, with all the energy and dexterity of a beaver; 
and, as it was once said of an English advocate, that he could never plead, 
without a piece of packthread in his hands, so the Yankee would lose half his 
thrift, unless the knife and wood were concomitants of his chaffering. But the 
habit is of evil tendency, and ought to be checked. He indulges in it without 
discrimination, upon whatever is cut-able ; and, worse than the white ant, which 
saws down and carries away whole human habitations, when they have become 
deserted, the whittling Yankee would hack your dwelling in present occupation, 
until he rendered you houseless. Let the mischief be checked betimes ; do it 
at school ; showing, at the same time, the uselessness, the folly, and the annoy- 
ing nature, of the habit. It is not merely at home, among our own people, that 
it is practiced by us ; but we carry it with us wherever we go, and, even among 
strangers, establish our New England identity by it. 

The spirit of the school rules at which we have glanced, should be carried 
into every family. It is not enough to present the summary at which we have 
arrived ; we should also insist on minor particulars, by words and actions, not 
at school only, but at home, where great familiarity produces influences unfa- 
vorable to the exercise of courtesy, — such as the closingof all doors, especially 
in cold weather; the doing of it gently, without slamming ; moving quietly over 
the floor ; abstaining from shouting, whistling, boisterous plays, wearing the 
hat in the house, &c. Just in proportion as such habits ean be secured by your 
labors, will you bring down upon your heads the blessing of mothers, worn by 
care, by sickness, and the rudeness of their offspring. Powerless themselves, 
to produce a reformation, their gratitude to you .will be sincere and heartfelt. 

Children should be taught to take leave of their parents and friends, on going 
to school, and to offer the friendly salute and kind inquiry, on returning home. 
Nothing tends more to strengthen the silken cords of family affection, than 
these little acts of courtesy; and their influence on the observer is highly fa- 
vorable to benevolent feeling. If these points are attended tcr in our families, 
they will not fail of being carried into company, where they are always a coin 
of sterling value. 26 



402 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



Dedicatory Exercises. 



The opening of a new school-house is an occasion which well deserves 
a public and joyful commemoration. Out of it are to be the issues- of life 
to the community in the midst of which it stands, and like the river seen 
in the vision of the prophet, which nourished all along its banks trees 
whose leaves were for the healing of the nations, the well-spring of all its 
influences should be a spot consecrated by religion. In prayer, and in 
praise to the Giver of all good, and the Author of all being, — in song, and 
hymn and anthem, and in addresses, from those whose position in society 
will command the highest respect for any object in whose behalf they 
may speak, and in the presence of all classes of the community, of pupils, 
and teachers, of fathers and mothers, of the old and young, — the school- 
house should be set apart to the sacred purpose of the physical, intellec- 
tual and moral culture of the children who will be gathered within its 
walls. We rejoice to see that these occasions are thus improved, ancLthat 
so many of our most distinguished teachers, scholars and statesmen take 
part in the exercises. We have before us a large number'of addresses, at 
once eloquent and practical, which have been delivered at the opening of 
new school-houses, and we shall select a few, not for their superiority to the 
rest, but as specimens of the manner in which topics appropriate to the 
occasion are introduced, and as fitting testimony to the importance of 
School Architecture. 

School Celebration at Salem, Mass. 

On the first of March, 1842, the occasion of occupying several new 
school-houses, was marked by a variety of interesting exercises, an ac- 
count of which will be found in the Common School Journal for that year. 
We copy the addresses of Mr. George B. Emerson, and of G. F. Thayer. 

Mr. Emerson said, — 

"I congratulate you, my young friends, on this happy event. This 
pleasant day is like a smile of Heaven upon this occasion ; and I believe 
Heaven always smiles on events like this. Many of us whom you see 
here have come from a distance, on the invitation of your excellent friend 
the Mayor, to show the interest which we feel in you. and in what has been 
done here for your improvement. We have taken great pleasure in look- 
ing over the buildings prepared for your use, the admirable arrangements 
and apparatus, so much superior to what is usually enjoyed by children 
in your position. We have been pleased to hear of the faithful teachers 
that are provided for you, and the excellent plan of your studies, and the 
excellent regulations. 

Your fathers and friends have spared no pains to furnish you with all 
the best means and opportunities for learning. They now look to you to 
do your part. All that they have done will be of no avail, unless you 
are excited to exert yourselves, — to prove yourselves worthy of these 
great advantages. 

I was gratified, in looking over the regulations, to see the course marked 
out for you, — to*see the stress laid upon the great substantials of a good 
education,— to see the prominent place given to that most useful art, that 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEM. 4Q3 

most graceful accomplishment, reading. You cannot, my young friends, 
realize the great and manifold advantages of gaining, now, in the begin- 
ning of your life, familiarly and perfectly, the single power of reading 
distinctly, naturally, intelligently, with taste and interest, — and of acquir- 
ing a Love for reading. There is no situation in life, in which it will not 
prove to you a source of the purest pleasure and highest improvement. 

For many years, and many times in a year, I have passed by the shop 
of a diligent, industrious mechanic, whom I have often seen busy at his 
trade, with his arms bare, hard at work. His industry and steadiness 
have been successful, and he has gained a competency. But he still re- 
mains wisely devoted to his trade. During the day, you may see him at 
his work, or chatting with his neighbors. At night, he sits down in his 
parlor, by his quiet fireside, and enjoys the company of his friends. And 
he has the most extraordinary collection of friends that any man in New 
England can boast of William H. Prescott goes out from Boston, and 
talks with him about Ferdinand and Isabella. Washington Irving comes 
from New York, and tells him the story of the wars of Grenada, and the 
adventurous voyage of Columbus, or the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, or 
the tale of the Broken Heart. George Bancroft sits down with him, and 
points out on a map, the colonies and settlements of America, their cir- 
cumstances and fates, and gives him the early history of liberty. Jared 
Sparks comes down from Cambridge, and reads to him the letters of 
Washington', and makes his heart glow with the heroic deeds of that god- 
like man for the cause of his country. Or, if he is in the mood for poetry, ' 
his neighbor Washington Allston, the great painter, steps in and tells 
him a story, — and nobody tells a story so well, — or repeats to him lines of 
poetry. Bryant comes, with his sweet wood-notes, which he learnt 
among the green hills of Berkshire. And Richard H. Dana, father and 
.son, come, the one to repeat grave, heart-stirring poetry, the other to 
speak of his froo years before the mast. Or. if this mechanic is in a spec- 
ulative mood. Professor Hitchcock comes to talk to him of all the changes 
that have befallen the soil of Massachusetts, since the flood and before ; 
or Professor Espy tries to show him how to predict a storm. Nor is his 
acquaintance confined to his own country. In his graver hours, he sends 
for Sir John Herschel from across the ocean, and he comes and sits down 
and discourses eloquently upon the wonders of the vast creation, — of all 
the worlds that are poured upon our sight by the glory of a starry night. 
Nor is it across the stormy ocean of blue waves alone that his friends 
come to visit him ; but across the darker and wider ocean of time, come the 
wise and the good, the eloquent and the witty, and sit down by his table, 
and discourse with him as long as he wishes to listen. That-eloquent 
blind old man of Scio, with beard descending to his girdle, still blind, but 
still eloquent, sits down with him ; and, as he sang almost three thousand 
years ago among the Grecian isles, sings the war of Troy or the wan- 
derings of the sage Ulysses. The poet of the human heart comes from 
the banks of Avon, and the poet of Paradise from his small garden-house 
in Westminster ; Burns from his cottage on the Ayr, and Scott from his 
dwelling by the Tweed ; — and, any time these three years past, may 
have been seen by his fireside a man who ought to be a hero with school- 
boys, for no one ever so felt for them ; a man whom so many of your 
neighbors in Boston lately strove in vain to see, — Charles Dickens. In 
the midst of such friends, our friend the leather-dresser lives a happy and 
respected life, not less respected, and far more happy, than if an uneasy 
ambition had made him a representative in Congress, or a governor of a 
State ; and the more respected and happy that he disdains not to labor 
daily in his honorable calling. 

My young friends, this is no fancy sketch. Many who hear me know 
as well as I do, Thomas Dowse, the leather-dresser of Cambridgeport, 



£04 DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEM. 

and many have seen his choice and beautiful library. But I suppose 
there is no one here who knows a neighbor of his, who had in his early 
years the same advantages, but who did not improve them ; — who never 
gained this love of reading, and who now, in consequence, instead of liv- 
ing this happy and desirable life, wastes his evenings in low company at 
taverns, or dozes them away by his own fire. Which of these lives will 
you choose to lead 1 They are both before you. 

Some of you, perhaps, are looking forward to the life of a farmer. — a 
very happy life, if it be well spent. On the southern side of a gently 
sloping hill in Natick, not far from the place where may be still standing 
the last wigwam of the tribe of Indians of that name, in a comfortable 
farm-house, lives a man whom I sometimes go to see. I find him with 
his farmer's frock on, sometimes at the plough-tail, sometimes handling 
the hoe or the axe ; and I never shake his hand, hardened by honorable 
toil, without wishing that I could harden my own poor hands by his sidf 
in the same respectable employment. I go out to look with him at trees 
and to talk about them ; for he is a lover of trees, and so am I ; and he is> 
not unwilling, when I come, to leave his work for a stroll in the woods. 
He long ago learnt the language of plants, and they have told him their 
history and their uses. He. again, is a reader, and has collected about 
him a set of friends, not so numerous as our friend Dowse, nor of just the 
same character, but a goodly number of very entertaining and instructive 
ones ; and he finds time every day to enjoy their company. * His winter 
evenings he spends with them, and in repeating experiments which the 
chemists and philosophers have made. He leads a happy life. Time 
never hangs heavy on his hands. For such a man we have an involun- 
tary respect. 

On the other side of Boston, downs by the coast, lived, a few years ago,, 
a farmer of a far different character. He had been what is called fortu- 
nate in business, and had a beautiful farm and garden in the country, and 
a house in town. Chancing to pass by his place, some four or five years 
ago, I stopped to see him. And I could not but congratulate him on hav- 
ing so delightful a place to spend his summers in. But he frankly con- 
fessed that he was heartily tired of it, and that lie longed to go back to 
Boston. I found that he knew nothing about his trees, of which he had 
many fine ones, — for it was an old place he had bought, — nor of the plants- 
in his garden. He had no books, and no taste for them. His time hung 
like a burden on him. He enjoyed neither his leisure nor his wealth. It 
would have been a blessing to him. if he could have been obliged to ex- 
change places with his hired men, and dig in his garden for his gardener, 
or plough the field for his ploughman. He went from country to town 
and from town to country, and died, at last, weary and sick of life. Yet 
he was a kind man, and might have been a happy one but for a single 
misfortune ; he had not learned to enjoy reading. The love of reading is 
a blessing in any pursuit, in any course of life ; — not less to the merchant 
and sailor than to the mechanic and farmer. What was it but a love of 
reading which made of a merchant's apprentice, a man whom many of 
you have seen and all have heard of, the truly great and learned 
Bowditch'? 

Our friends the young ladies may not think this which I have said 
exactly suited to them. But to you, my young friends, even more than 
to your brothers, it is important now to acquire a talent for reading well, 
and a taste for reading. I say more important, for, looking forward to 
the future, you will need it more than they. They are more independent 
of this resource- They have their shops, and farms, and counting-houses 
to go to. They are daily on change. They go abroad on the ocean. 
The sphere of woman, her place of honor, is home, her own fireside, the 
eares of her own family. A well-educated woman is a sun in this sphere^ 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEM. 4Q5 

shedding around her the light of intelligence, the warmth of love and 
happiness. 

And by a well-educated woman I do not mean merely one who has ac- 
quired ancient, and loreign languages, or curious or striking accomplish- 
ments. I mean a woman who, having left school with a firmly-fixed love 
of reading, has employed the golden leisure of her youth in reading the 
best English books, such as shall prepare her for her duties. All the best 
books ever written are in English, either original or translated', and in 
this richest and best literature of the world she may find enough to pre- 
pare her for all the duties and relations of life. The mere talent of read- 
ing well, simply, gracefully, — what a beautiful accomplishment it is in 
woman ! How many weary and otherwise heavy hours have I had 
charmed into pleasure by this talent in a female friend. But I speak of 
the higher acquisition, the natural and usual consequence of this, a taste 
for reading. This will give a woman a world of resources. 

It gives her the oracles of God. These will be ever near her ; — nearest 
to her hand when she wakes, and last from her hand when she retires t© 
sleep. And what stores of wisdom, for this world and for a higher, will 
she gain from this volume! This will enable her to form her &\vn char- 
acter and the hearts of her children. Almost every distinguished man 
has confessed his obligations to his mother. To her is committed the 
whole formation of the character, — mind, heart, and body, at the most 
important period of life. How necessary, then, is it that she should pos- 
sess a knowledge of the laws of the body and the mind 1 and how can 
she get it but by reading ? If you gain only this, what an unspeakable 
Messing will your education be to you ! 

I need not, my young friends, speak of the other acquisitions you may 
make. — of writing, which places friends in the remotest parts of the world 
tside by side, — or of calculation, the very basis of justice and honesty. 

The acquisitions you may make will depend chiefly on yourselves. 
You will find your teachers ready to lead you on to higher studies when- 
ever you are prepared to go. 

These excellent establishments are emphatically yours. They are 
raised for your good ; and, as we your seniors pass away, — and in a few 
years we shall have passed, — these buildings will become your property, 
and your children will fill the seats you now occupy. Consider them 
yours, then, to enjoy and profit by, but not yours to waste. Let it be 
your pride to preserve them uninjured, unmarred by the mischievous 
knives and pencils of vulgar children. Unite for this purpose. Consider 
an injury done to these buildings as an injury done to yourselves. 

There is another thing which will depend on you, of more importance 
than any I have spoken of. I mean the tone of character which shall 
prevail in these schools. Your teachers will be happy to treat you as 
high-minded and generous children. Show that you can be so treated 4 
that you are such. 

Let me congratulate you upon the happy auspices of the name of him 
under whom, with the zealous co-operation of enlightened and patriotic 
associates, this momentous change in your school system has been 
effected, — a name which is borne by the oldest and best school in New 
Hampshire, and by one of the oldest and best in Massachusetts. It will 
depend upon you, my friends, to make the schools of Salem, equally, or 
still more distinguished, among those of the State.'" 

Mr. Thayer said, — 

Children : I did not expect that I should have the privilege of address- 
ing you, on this most joyful occasion ; for it was not till I met your re- 
t^pected Mayor, an hour ago, at the beautiful school-house we have juei 



406 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

left, that I received an invitation to do so. You will not, therefore, antici- 
pate a studied discourse, or any thing particularly interesting. Devoted, 
however, as my life is, and has long been, to the instruction and guidance 
of the young in no inconsiderable numbers, I shall, without further pre- 
face, imagine myself in the midst of my own school, and talk familiarly to 
you as I would, and do, to them. 

And allow me to add my congratulations to those of your other friends, 
for the ample, beautiful, and convenient arrangements that have been 
made for you, in the school-houses of this city; and especially in the new 
one we have just examined. I can assure you, it is superior in almost 
every respect to any public school-house in New England, if not in the 
United States. It, with others in the city, has cost your fathers and 
friends a great deal of money, which they have cheerfully expended as a 
means of making you wise and good. But you have incurred a great 
debt to them, which you can never repay while you are children, but 
must endeavor to do it to your children, when you shall become men and 
women, and take the place of your parents in the world. But before that 
period, you can do something. Now, immediately on entering upon the 
enjoyment of the precious privileges extended to you, you can acknowl- 
edge, the debt, evince the gratitude you feel, not by words, but deeds ; — 
by, (to use an expression well understood by all children,) ' being good? 
Yes, — by ' being good and doing good ;' — by obedience to parents and 
teachers ; by kindness to brothers and sisters, and all your young friends 
and companions; by fidelity in duty, at home and at school ; by the prac- 
tice of honesty and truth at all times ; by refraining from the use of pro- 
fane and indecent language ; by keeping the mind and heart free from 
every thing impure. These are the means in your own hands. Fail not 
to use them ; and although they will in fact be merely an acknowledg- 
ment of your obligation for the boon you possess, your friends will con- 
sider themselves well repaid for all they have done for you. It is from 
such conduct that the teacher's, as well as the father's, richest reward 
and highest satisfaction are derived. To see the beloved objects of our 
care and instruction appreciating our labors, and improving in all that is 
good and useful, under our management, affords the greatest happiness, 
lightens the heavy load of toil, relieves the aching head, and revives the 
fainting spirit. 

There is, however, one great danger to which you, — to which all the 
young, — are especially exposed. I mean the influence of bad example. 
Example is omnipotent. Its force is irresistible to most minds. We are 
all swayed more or less, by others. Others are swayed by us. And this 
process is continually going on, even though we are entirely unconscious 
of it ourselves. Hence we see the importance of choosing good com- 
panions, and flying from the bad. Unless this is done, it will be in vain 
for your friends to give you wise counsel, or for you to form good resolu- 
tions. ' Who can touch pitch and be clean V You will resemble those 
with whom you associate. You will catch their words, their manners, 
their habits. Are they pure, you will be pure. Are they depraved, they 
will corrupt you. Be it a rule with you. then, to avoid those who are ad- 
dicted to practices that you would be unwilling your most respected 
friends should know, and regulate your own conduct by the same 
standard. 

I would particularly caution you against beginnings. It is the first step 
that is the dangerous one ; since it is obvious that, if you were to ascend 
the highest mountain, it could only be done by a step at a time, and if the 
first were not taken, the summit could never be reached. But, one suc- 
cessfully accomplished, the next follows as a matter of course. And 
equally and fatally sure is the downward track to crime and misery ! If 
we suffer ourselves to be drawn in that direction, what human power can 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT SALEM. 407 

save us from destruction ? This clanger, too, is increased by the feeling 
of security we indulge, when we say, ' It is only a little thing.; we shall 
never commit any great fault ;' — not remembering that nothing stands 
still in life, in character, any more than in the material universe. We 
must be going forward or backward ; up, towards improvement and 
glory, — or down, towards infamy and woe ! Every thing accumulates, 
according to its kind ; though it begins small, like the snowball you hold in 
your hand, it becomes, as you roll it on the ground before you. larger at 
every revolution, till, at last, it is beyond your power to move it at all. 

I will illustrate this by a sad case which has recently occurred in Bos- 
ton. But first, I wish to interest you in something of an agreeable nature, 
in connection with the faithful performance of duty. 

I have spoken of some things that you should do, to show your sense of 
the benefits which have been conferred upon you, and I • should like to 
dwell on each one of them separately ; but I shall have time only to speak 
of one. It is-, however, among the most important. I allude to speaking 
the truth, — the most substantial foundation of moral character. It has in- 
numerable advantages, one of which is strikingly exhibited in the fol- 
lowing story : — 

Petrarch, an eminent Italian poet, who lived about five hundred years 
ago, secured the confidence and friendship of Cardinal Colonna, in whose 
family he resided in his youth, by his candor and strict regard to truth. 

A violent quarrel had occurred in the family of this nobleman, which 
was carried so far, that resort was had to arms. The cardinal wished to 
know the foundation of the affair ; and, calling all hie people before him, 
he required each one to bind himself by a solemn oath, on the Gospels, to 
declare the whole truth. None were exempt. Even the cardinal's 
brother submitted to it. Petrarch, in his turn, presenting himself to take 
the oath, the cardinal closed the book, and said, ' As far you, Petrarch, 
your word is sufficient.*'' 

What more delightful reward could have been presented to the feelings 
of the noble youth than this, from his friend, his master, and one of the 
highest dignitaries of the church '? Nothing but the peaceful whispers of 
his own conscience, or the approbation of his Maker, could have given 
him more heart-felt satisfaction. Who among you would not be a 
Petrarch ? and, in this respect, which of you could not 1 

While, then, I would hold up for imitation this beautiful example, I 
would present a contrast as a warning to you. 

There is now confined in the Boston jail a boy of fourteen years of age, 
who, for the previous six years, had been sinking deeper and deeper into 
vice and crime, until last October, when he was convicted, and sentenced 
to two years' confinement within the cold damp cell of a gloomy prison, 
for aggravated theft. In his own written account of his life, which I have 
seen, he says that he began his wretched course by playing truant from 
school. His second step was lying, to conceal it. Idle, and destitute of 
any fixed purpose, he fell in company with others, guilty like himself, of 
whom he learned to steal, and to use indecent and profane language. He 
sought the worst boys he could find. He became a gambler, a frequenter 
of the circus and the theatre, and engaged in various other corrupt and 
sinful practices. At length, becoming bold in his dishonesty, he robbed 
the post-office of letters containing very considerable sums of money, and 
was soon detected and condemned. If you were to visit that abode of 
misery, you might often see the boy's broken-hearted mother, weeping, 
and sobbing, and groaning, at the iron grating of his solitary cell, as if 
she would sink on the flinty floor, and die ! ' And all this,' (to use the 
boy's own words,) 'comes from playing truant!' 

Look, then, my young friends, on these two pictures, — both taken from 
life. — and tell me which you like best ; and which of the two characters 



408 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

you propose to imitate. Will you be young Petrarchs, or will you adopt 
the course of the unfortunate boy in Boston jail 1 They are both before 
you. If you would be like the former, begin right. Resist temptation 
to wrong-doing, with all your might. Let no one entice you from the 
way which conscience points out. 

This precept is applicable to all, — to both sexes and every age. Let 
me, then, I pray you, when I shall inquire, hereafter, respecting the habits 
and characters of the children of the Public Schools of Salem, have the 
satisfaction to hear, that the instructions of this occasion made an impres- 
sion on their minds favorable to truth and duty, which subsequent time 
could never efface. 



Dedication of the New School-house in Pawtucket, October 31, 1846 

Address of President Wayland, of Brown University. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, 

There is something deeply interesting, both to the philanthropist and 
to the political economist, in the appearance of such a village as this, the 
abode of wealth, civilization and refinement. ' We find ourselves, as we 
look upon it, unconsciously reverting to the period, not very remote, when 
this whole region was a desert. Thick forests covered all these hills, and 
pressed down even to the water's brink. This river rushed over its rocky 
bed, or tumbled down its precipitous ledges, unnoticed by the eye of 
civilized man. A few savages from time to time, erected their transient 
wigwams upon its banks, as the season of hunting or fishing attracted 
them, and they alone disputed the claim of the beasts of the forest to this 
beautiful domain. The products of all this region were a scanty and pre- 
carious pasturage for game, a few canoe loads of fish, and, it may be, a 
few hundred pounds of venison. Whatever else the earth produced, fell 
and perished ungathered. Age after age, beheld this annual waste. 
Here was the earth with all its capabilities. Here were the waters with 
all their unexpended powers. But here was no man whose intellect had 
been instructed in the laws of nature. Here was neither continuous in- 
dustry, nor even frugal forethought. Hence there could be no progress. 
All things continued as they were from the beginning of the creation. 

About two hundred years since, the first civilized man cast his eyes 
over this beautiful landscape. He brought with him the arts and the 
science of the older world, and a new era commenced in the history of 
that part of our country, since known as Rhode Island. The labors of 
agriculture soon began to work their magic changes. The forest was 
felled, the soil was tilled, and, in the place of the precarious products of 
the uncultivated field, rich harvests of grain waved over these plains. 
The beasts of the forest retired, and the animals given by the Creator 
to aid us in our toil, occupied their place. Instead of the graceful deer, 
the clumsy moose, the prowling wolf and the ravenous panther, these 
fields were covered with the lowing herds, the bleating sheep, the labori- 
ous ox, and the horse, in all latitudes the faithful servant of man. 

This was a great and glorious transformation. From the moment that 
a civilized man first thrust his spade into this earth, or here yoked his 
oxen to the plough, the sleep of ages was broken, and the reign of pro- 
gress commenced. From this moment the darkness had begun to pass 
away, and the sun was dispersing that night, which, since the deluge, 
ad brooded over this land. From that auspicious beginning, all the 
means of happiness that the eye beholds, have proceeded. Acre after 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT NORTH PROVIDENCE. 499 

acre has been reclaimed from barrenness. Every variety of product has 
been tried, in order to ascertain which would be produced by the earth 
most kindly. The smoky wigwam gave place to the log house, and this 
in turn, to the convenient farm-house, or th'e stately mansion. And thus 
another portion of the earth was added to the area of Anglo-Saxon civili- 
zation. 

But still the river, to which all the distinctive prosperity of this region 
owes its origin, ran, as it ever had ran, to utter waste. This mighty and 
most productive means of wealth, remained wholly unemployed. A 
mine richer than that of gold, was yet unwrought. It was a mine of me- 
chanical power, instead of metallic treasure, and let me add, a mine of 
incalculably greater value. At last it was discovered, that this little 
river, falling over its innumerable ledges, could do the labor of many 
thousand men. An accomplished manufacturer,* from England, whose 
name has made this village one of the most renowned spots in our coun- 
try, came among us, and applied the power of this water-fall to the spin- 
ning and weaving of cotton. Who can measure the results of this one 
grand experiment? We hear of battles and sieges, of the defeat of 
armies, the capture of towns, the destruction of fleets; but what achieve- 
ment of war was ever of such importance to a people, as that which was 
accomplished, when that wheel made its first revolution, and the first 
thread of cotton was here, in this very village, spun by water power 1 
From this moment may be dated the commencement of general manu- 
factures in this country, and that, of cotton in particular. From that mo- 
ment, every fall of water throughout our land became a most valuable 
possession. From that moment, this noble natural agent began, every- 
where, to fabricate garments for our people. From that moment all the 
labor, of every age, throughout New England, could be profitably em- 
ployed. From that moment it was certain that capital to any amount 
could readily find investment. The rich proceeds of one manufactory 
laid the foundations of a similar one by the side of it. As one branch 
of manufactures began to supply the demand of the nation, another 
branch was established. Thus we are every year adding millions to this 
form of investment, and employing additional thousands of hands in this 
mode of industry. We are. entering into generous and successful rivalry 
with the nations of Europe. Already many of our cottons are preferred 
to theirs in the markets of the world. Soon, other branches of our man- 
ufactures will be brought to equal perfection. Nay, I anticipate the 
time when we, in this country, under a system of generous reciprocity, 
shall supply the continent and England herself with all those articles, 
for the fabrication of which we have special advantages. 

But this chain of events by no means ceases here. Year after year 
every branch of manufactures is increasing its means, and distributing 
the proceeds of its labor over every part of our land. Wherever a fabric 
is sent, it is exchanged, in some form, for the productions of that region 
in which it is consumed. The common means for accomplishing these 
mutual and increasing exchanges, soon became utterly inadequate ; more 
efficient modes of transportation must, from necessity, be invented. The 
business of the country could not be carried on without them. Our man- 
ufacturing prosperity, while it creates the necessity for internal improve- 
ments, also supplies the means for constructing them. The annual gains 
of manufacturing- capital are next invested in canals and railroads, and 
thus the means of transporting these fabrics at the least cost, are at once 

* Mr. Slater has even a higher claim to the gratitude and veneration of this country, than 
that which he derives from the introduction of the cotton manufacture. He established in 
JPawtucket the first Sunday School that was ever opened in America; and for some tim« 
sustained it wholly at his own expense. 



410 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

provided. Here is, then, another mode created, of advantageous invest- 
ment. By means of internal improvement, the market of every producer 
is indefinitely extended, he also receives a fair remuneration for this very 
investment, by which his market is thus extended, and, at the same time 
the consumer receives whatever he purchases at a cheaper rate and in 
greater perfection. Thus, as we always observe, under the government 
of God, a real benefit to one is a benefit to all. And hence we learn, 
that to attempt to secure exclusive advantages to ourselves, is always 
abor lost. Nothing can be a real benefit to us, that is not a real benefit 
also to our neighbors. 

And the illustration of all that I have said, is manifest every where 
around us. We behold how every other art has clustered around the art 
of transforming cotton into clothing. We see how one establishment has 
been the seed that has produced a multitude of those that resemble it. 
You see how manufactures have given rise to internal improvements ; 
how the spindle has cut through the mountains, and filled up the valleys 
and graded the road, and stretched from city to city the iron rail. You 
see how loth these inseparable friends are to be parted from each other. 
The region of manufactures is the region of railroads. And you per- 
ceive, as the iron road that passes through this village, pursues its way 
toward the west, how it winds along through the valley of the Black- 
stone, greeting every village and waking every hamlet to renewed ac- 
tivity. 

All this you readily perceive. You must be astonished yourselves, 
when you reflect upon the amount of capital which a single life time has 
added to the resources of this village, and the country in its immediate 
vicinity. But while we exult in the large measure of prosperity with 
which a bountiful Providence has endowed us, it may not be uninstruc- 
tive to inquire, in what ways have these blessings been improved? Has 
it ever occurred to you, that almost all this capital has been invested in 
procuring for ourselves, the means of physical happiness? We erect 
houses, and we render them spacious, warm, and commodious. We furnish 
them with every means of physical luxury. We spread carpets for our 
feet. , We stretch ourselves on couches of down. We temper the at- 
mosphere at our will. We clothe ourselves with vestments wrought in 
every clime, and by people of every hue and language. We vary our 
dress with every fashion. We load our tables with luxuries imported 
fr°m the tropics or the poles; we vex sea and land for new viands to stim- 
ulate our palates, already saturated with abundance. We please our- 
selves with every form of equipage, and tax the ingenuity of every arti- 
san, that we may be enabled to roll from place to place without the fa- 
tigue of motion. But why need I proceed to specify any further. We 
all perceive, on the least reflection, that it is in expenditures of this land, 
that almost all the expenses of living are incurred. 

But if this be true, must there not be some grievous error in the prin- 
ciples of our conduct? Can this be a wise mode of expenditure for intel- 
ligent and immortal beings ? In all that I have here recited, is there any 
thing in which, on principle, we have excelled, ( excuse the homeliness of 
the illustration,) the Beaver that once inhabited these streams? The 
thoughtful animal expended all the treasures of his intellect or instinct, 
in rendering his dwelling commodious; and he accomplished it. Have we 
not done precisely the same thing ? Has not all the expenditure of 
which I have spoken, been consumed for the convenience of the physical, 
the perishable, the material ? Might not all this have been done, had we 
no consciousness of an immortal spirit ? 

But God has made us immortal. He has given to us a spiritual exist- 
ence. Each one of us possesses a priceless mind. We are endowed with 
reason to discover truth, imagination to form conceptions of the beautiful 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT NORTH PROVIDENCE. 4^ J 

and the grand, taste to delight in all that is lovely or glorious, and con- 
science by which we are allied to God the Father of all, and the holy 
and blessed throughout the universe. It is by the possession of these 
powers, that man claims precedence over the brute. It is by the cultiva- 
tion of these, that we have become more powerful than the savage, who 
once dwelt where we now dwell. It is by the use of these powers, that 
all the wonders of art have been wrought, which we now behold around 
us. If such be the fact, it must certainly be true that this, the spiritual 
part of man, is by far the most deserving of attention, and that, in the 
cultivation of this portion of our nature, we can in the most appropriate 
manner invest our capital. 

But while this is evident, does our practice correspond with these well 
established principles ? We liberally expend our substance to preserve 
our bodies in health, and to cultivate in our children the full development 
of every power, and the outward manifestation of every grace. But do 
we bestow proportionate labor in developing every spiritual faculty, and 
protecting the immortal part from the spreading contagion of evil exam- 
ple, and the wasting results of evil habit ? We expend whatever is ne- 
cessary in furnishing our tables with every thing that may be desired for 
the sustentation of Ae body. Where is there the man among us, who 
would not blush to be considered an illiberal provider for the wants of his 
household ? but is any man ashamed to confess, that he has made no pro- 
vision for the spiritual appetites of his children? Who of us would per- 
mit tainted or unwholesome food to be brought into his house, or placed 
upon his table? and yet is not intellectual food of the most questionable 
character, daily read in the houses of many of our most excellent citi- 
zens? Who is ashamed to declare, that he has no library in his house, 
or that, he has never taken the pains to inquire whether the books that 
are read by his family, are useful or deleterious ? 

But this is not all. We know that the youthful mind is destitute of 
knowledge, and that it is strongly predisposed to the formation of im- 
proper habits. Every one knows that a child needs instruction, and that 
the labor of giving it instruction should be devolved upon those only, 
who are intellectually and morally qualified to impart it. The parent 
can rarely do this for himself. The principle of division of labor teaches 
us, that it can be much more successfully done by some one who will de- 
vote his whole attention to it. But, now, let us look over our own neigh- 
borhoods, and observe how very small, until quite lately, has been the 
amount of capital devoted to the education of our youth. Compare it 
with almost every other form of investment, and you at once perceive 
how small is its relative amount. Take, for instance, the railroad which 
passes within a stone's throw of the place in which we are assembled. 
Many of you and your fellow citizens, subscribed for its stock. You did 
wisely. It will, I presume, raise the value of every form of property 
here. Land will sell for a better price. You will thus become directly 
connected with the whole of the South, and with the whole of the East 
and West; and you can, at very little expense of transportation, ex- 
change productions with the remotest extremities of our country. This 
is certainly an improvement upon your former means of communication, 
and you are willing to invest your capital in the effort to secure it. But 
suppose you had been assessed to an equal amount, in order to provide 
the means of education ; suppose you had been called upon to subscribe 
the same sum in aid of an effort to give to the youth of this village the 
best education in New England, would you not have considered the 
demand excessive ? Would you have believed that you could possibly 
have paid it ? Yet, I ask, is not the education of your children as impor- 
tant an object as the improvement of your means of transportation? 
Suppose you were to unite in such an effort, would not the amount of 



412 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

which I have spoken he sufficient to accomplish the result, the giving to 
your children the best education in New England. Is it not evident, then, 
that Ave bestow upon the means of education, an attention very much 
less than they deserve 1 

I have spoken in this manner as though I were addressing you in par- 
ticular. But this is not what I intend. I speak of the amount of atten- 
tion which, until lately, has been given to this subject, here in this State, 
and throughout New England. I know as well as you, that you have 
not been specially behind hand in this matter. You have always been 
prepared to do your part, in every effort to improve the condition of 
education amongst us. I have, however, alluded to these facts and have 
presented these parallels, that you maybe enabled to judge of the degree 
in which we have erred, in estimating the proportion of our income 
which is due to the cause of education. 

1 greatly rejoice, however, that indications of decided improvement in 
this respect, are visible every where around us. In Massachusetts, for 
several years past, no subject has appealed with greater success to the 
enlightened public opinion of her citizens. One of her most gifted and 
eloquent sons has consecrated his life to this noble cause, and the results 
of his efforts have become every where apparent. Nor have we of Rhode 
Island been wholly wanting to ourselves in this good work. Although for 
many years the people were indifferent to their true interests in this re- 
spect, yet, when they came to its importance, they pursued it with a 
manly steadfastness and a far-seeing liberality, which would do honor to 
any community in our country. The school system of Providence is ac- 
knowledged to be second to none in the land, in excellence and efficiency. 
The people in all our districts, agricultural and manufacturing, are seek- 
ing to know the best means of promoting the thorough education of their 
children; 1 they are building school-houses on the best models that can be 
presented to them, and are raising money, with annually increasing lib- 
erality, for the purpose of accomplishing these results most perfectly. 

It gives me great pleasure. Ladies and Gentlemen of Pawtucket, to be 
a witness to the enlightened zeal which you have manifested on this sub- 
ject. From this village, first went forth the impulse which called into 
existence the most important manufacturing interest in this country. It 
is meet that as you have taught us how to supply our external, you should 
teach us how to supply our internal wants. You have taught us how 
we may clothe our bodies, it is well that you should teach us how to cul- 
tivate, and strengthen, and ennoble our minds. You have intended to 
render this school-house a model for your fellow citizens throughout the 
State. It is a noble and patriotic emulation, and we thank you for it. 
We hope that, every village and district in the State will imitate your 
example. 

I am delighted to observe that, in all your arrangements, you have in 
this matter acted with wise and thoughtful liberality. Instead of put- 
ting vour school-house out of sight, in an inconvenient and unheals 
pus±uon, you have placed it on an eminence, in a desirable locality, and 
have determined to surround it with ample play-grounds. The building 
itself is exceedingly pleasing in its external proportions, and forms one of 
the most agreeable ornaments of your village. You thus associate edu- 
cation in the mind of the young with every thing gladsome and alluring; 
while, at the same time, you testily to your children, the importance which 
you attach to their intellectual cultivation. 

The apartments of your house are huge and convenient. The desks 
are constructed upon the most improved models, and the seats seem to me 
durable and neat, and, at the same time, comfortable to the pupil. Every 
thing in the school-rooms has the air of finish and completeness. The 
arrangements for illustration, by the blackboards, are, and I presume 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT NORTH PROVIDENCE. 



413 



that those hy every other means will be, ample. With such instructors 
as you have appointed, seconded by your own zealous and untiring efforts, 
I have no doubt that this school will be all that you desire to make it, one 
of the first model schools of New England. 

But I perceive that your forethought has gone farther. You have de- 
termined that other habits, besides those of the intellect, shall here receive 
their appropriate share of attention. You have provided for each scholar 
an exclusive place for his own hat and outer clothing. You have fur- 
nished your apartments with convenient wash-rooms, an improvemen 
which I do not remember to have seen in any other school-house. Thus 
you have made it necessary for each scholar to cultivate habits of order 
and cleanliness. In all these respects, I do not see how your arrange- 
ments could be better made, or how any thing else could reasonably be 
desired. 

How delightful an object of contemplation is such a school as this, 
when faithfully and zealously conducted. Here the slumbering germs of 
intellect will be quickened into life. Here talent, that would otherwise 
become torpid from inaction, will be placed upon the course of indefinite 
improvement. Here, the rough and uncultivated, arrested by the charms 
of knowledge, and allured by the accents of kindness, will lay aside their 
harshness, and assume the manners of refinement and good breeding. 
From hence the lessons of knowledge and the habits of order will be car- 
ried to many a family, and they will there awaken a whole circle to a 
higher and purer life. In a word, take the five hundred children, whom 
this building will accommodate, and suppose them destitute of the know- 
ledge, the discipline and the manners, which this school will confer ; trace 
their course through life in all its vicissitudes, and observe the station 
which each of them must occupy ; and then, suppose these five hundred 
children imbued with the knowledge which you here are prepared to give, 
and the habits which you intend to cultivate, and follow them through 
life, and observe the stations which you have qualified them to occupy; 
and you have the measure of good which, year after year, you are accom- 
plishing by the establishment of these means of instruction. Look at the 
money that it costs. You can calculate it to a single cent, both the prin- 
cipal investment and the interest which it would yield. But can you esti- 
mate the intellectual service, and moral advantages which will accrue to 
you and your children, by this expenditure ? The one is to you as the 
small dust of the balance. Were it all lost, you would hardly think of it. 
You would not think it worth while to smile at a man, who should say, 
Pawtucket is ruined, for it has lost a sum equal to that which all its means 
of education have cost. But suppose that, what that sum has purchased 
were lost ; suppose that your schools were shut up, and your whole pop- 
ulation consigned to ignorance ; that henceforth reading, writing, and all 
the knowledge which they unfold, should be taught or learned here no 
more for ever ; then would Pawtucket in reality be ruined. Every virtu- 
ous and intelligent family would flee from your border, and very soon 
your name would be an opprobrium to New England. I ask, then, in 
view of all this, is there any money which you invest, that brings you in 
so rich a revenue, as that which you devote to the cause of education ? 

But I ought to apologize for occupying so much larger a portion of 

}rour time than I intended. I must, however, even now, break off abrupt- 
y, and give place to others who are much more deserving than myself to 
be heard on this occasion. I will therefore add but a single suggestion. 
Let this effort which you have made, be but the first step in your pro- 
gress. Cultivate enlarged and liberal views of your duties to the young 
who are coming after you, and of the means that are given you to dis- 
charge them. A place as large as this, can perfectly well provide for all 
its youth of both sexes, as good an education as any one can desire, 



414 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

What we are capable of doing in this respect, is so little known, that any 
public spirited and united population, as wealthy as this, can easily place 
itself in the vanguard in this march of improvement. It is in your power 
eo to cultivate the mind and manners of your children, that wherever they 
go, they will take precedence of those of their own age and condition. 
Your example would excite others to follow in your footsteps. Who can 
tell how widely you might bless others, while you were laboring to bless 
yourselves % Are you prepared to enter upon so noble a career of im- 
provement'? 

Remarks of Rev Mr. Osgood- 

Mr. Osgood, of Providence, being called upon by the Chairman of the 
School Committee, spoke in substance as follows : 

You will agree with me, friends, in deeming it a happy circumstance, 
that he, whose position places him at the head of the educational interests 
of this State, and whose name stands among the highest in the literature 
of our land, has favored us with his presence upon this occasion, and 
borne so decided witness to the importance of a far nobler popular educa- 
tion. After what we have heard, we cannot but recognize the common 
interests of all friends of sound learning, and rank the school and the uni- 
versity as helpers in the same good cause. 

We have met to-day to consecrate this pleasant edifice to the service 
of popular instruction. Solemn prayer has been offered to the throne of 
mercy, and honest counsel has been addressed to you. This house is now 
consecrated as a temple of learning. Do we feel duly the significance of 
these exercises 1 Do we realize the common responsibility that we as- 
sume by participating in them ? This afternoon has been spent in mock- 
ery, unless the parties here represented entertain and carry out serious 
convictions of duty. 

Let us feel that in consecrating this house to tiie purposes of education, 
we consecrate it to the spirit of order. Without good order, education 
cannot succeed ; and surely all will allow that good order cannot exist 
without the aid alike of master and scholar, pa.'ent and guardian. Let 
the teacher have your hearty co-operation in his endeavors to regulate his 
school. Let him not be left at the mercy of the unreasonable, who will 
call every act of discipline, tyranny ; or of the quarrelsome, who will re- 
sent every restraint as a personality. Encourage in yourselves and your 
children the idea that good order has its foundation in the very nature of 
things, in the plan of the creation, and the hearts of man. There is or- 
der in God's works, — in the heavens above, — on the earth beneath. We 
imitate the divine mind when we strive to do our work in accordance with 
the best rules, and submit passing impulses and little details to a common 
standard of right. Let the child be taught to accept this idea, and to see 
in the order of the school not so much the teacher's will as the law of 
general good. Let this idea prevail, and a new day will come over our 
schools. Teachers will be more careful to place their passions under due 
control, by looking beyond present provocations to permanent principles ; 
and parents and children will acknowledge the justice of proper discipline, 
even when its penalties fall upon themselves. Consecrating this house 
to education, we consecrate it then to the spirit of good order. 

Akin to order is the spirit of good ao?'Z/.— that love that heightens every 
task, and cheers every labor. Let us feel that this building is set apart 
as the abode of good will. In ihe simple beauty of its walls, and the 
neatness of its arrangements, we see at once that it is intended to be a 
pleasant place, where the young shall come rather in love than fear. Let 
every thing be done to carry out this idea, and remove all gloom from the 
work that here is to go forward. Let the voice of music be heard in the 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT NORTH PROVIDENCE. 4^5 

intervals of study, and charm away weariness and discontent. Let 
courteous manners prevail between scholars and teachers. Let the law 
of love be .supreme, and the good of each be regarded as the good of all. 
Let every thing be done to make knowledge attractive, without impairing 
its solidity. You have declared your principles upon this subject in the 
very structure of this edifice ; virtually acknowledged the relation of the 
beautiful to the true, and applied to education that law of attraction that 
pervades all the plans of Divine Providence. Carry out these principles 
without fear and without extravagance. Let not your care be given 
merely to make your dwelling-houses attractive. Let there be no more 
school-rooms so rude and uncleanly as hardly to be ftt to shelter well-bred 
cattle. Let children learn neatness, taste, and refinement, along with 
their alphabet and multiplication table. To good will, under every one 
of its attractive agencies, this house should be devoted. 

Thus devoted, it will be a nursery of good works. Utility will go hand 
in hand with good order and good will. In this community, practical 
industry is the ruling power; utility is the prevailing standard. See to 
it that this standard is rightly adjusted, and that we do not confine our 
idea of usefulness to worldly or material interests. As we hear the sound 
of the spindle and the anvil, and see the spray of the waterfall, and the 
smoke of the furnace, let us rejoice at the large measure of enterprise and 
prosperity that have been granted us. But when we turn away from 
these things to look upon this house of learning, let us not think as some 
base souls do, that we have left utility behind, and are dealing only with 
what is visionary and unsubstantial. Next to the church of God, let us 
feel that the school-house is the most useful building in the community, 
and that from it should emanate the knowledge, principles, and habits 
that are to give life its direction and efficiency. Reckon in your estimate 
of the best wealth of your city, your schools, and, without them, regard 
all Other wealth as disgraceful covetousness or mental poverty. 

Let the idea of utility preside over the direction of this school, and all 
its studies tend not to fill the memory with loads of words, but to strength- 
en the mind, and invigorate and regulate the will and all the active 
powers. 

Standing as it does in so sacred a seat of manufacturing industry, this 
house has a peculiar significance. Overlooking this prosperous town, it 
serves to express a generous creed — to say as if it were : — " We, the 
people of North Providence, think much of the importance of industry and 
wealth, but we think that some other things are of still greater import- 
ance, and however remiss in duty we may have been in time past, we 
mean to practice upon a more generous system, and this fair temple of 
learning, standing so far above the factory and workshop, is a substantial 
testimonial of our determination." 

It is an interesting fact, that the first movement in this State in behalf 
of popular education was made, not by professional men, nor by mer- 
chants, nor any of the classes that might be thought, from their leisure or 
literature, to advocate the claims z£ sound learning, but by an association 
ol'mechanics and manufacturers in Providence. I read to-day, with great 
pleasure, the memorial which this association presented to the Legisla- 
ture., in the year 1798. I honor those men for that document. But one 
of the original signers now survives. Who can meet that old man with- 
out respect? Who will not honor John Howland even more for taking 
the lead in that memorial, than for having served under Washington at 
Trenton, and braved death in the battles of the revolution? Peace to his 
sturdy heart, and many good days yet to that stout Saxoiv frame ! 

I must cease speaking with these few words as to the good order, good 
will and good works, to which this house of learning is devoted. May a 
goo 1 providence watch over it. Imagination cannot but conjecture the 



415 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

various scenes of its future history — picture to herself the groups of chil- 
dren who shall come to enjoy its privileges, and who in due time shall' 
leave its walls for the pursuits of maturer life. Prophesy is not our gift, 
except the prophesy that calculates events by purposes and principles. 
Let this edifice be used faithfully for true purposes and for just principles, 
and its future history will be a blessed volume in the annai of your town 
It will tell of generations of noble men and women, who have been educa- 
ted within these walls. And when this house shall have gone to dust, it 
will have performed a noble mission, by being the nursery of mental life 
that cannot die. 

" Cold in the dust, the perished heart may lie, 
But that which warmed it once, can never die." 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. 4^7 



Dedication of the Public High School-House, in Cambridge, Mass. 

The edifice, which has just been erected (1848,) for the accommoda- 
tion of the Public High School of the city of Cambridge, is built of brick, 
two stories high with a basement, and is a substantial, attractive and con- 
venient school-house, of which the citizens of Cambridge may well 
feel proud. The cost, including land, furniture and apparatus, is $13,500. 
The plan of the interior is substantially the same as that of the High 
School in Hartford. 

The following account of the Dedication of this house is abridged from 
the Cambridge Chronicle for June 29, 1848. 

The services were commenced by the chanting of the Lord's Prayer 
by the scholars of the school. 

Alderman Whitney, in behalf of the building committee, transferred 
the building to the care of the School Committee, through the Mayor of 
the city, with an appropriate address. After a dedicatory prayer by Rev. 
N. Hoppin, and another chant, of selections from Proverbs, by the chil- 
dren, the Mayor addressed remarks to the audience upon the relation 
of the High School to the other grades of schools, and to the cause of 
education generally in the city, and on some of the conditions on which 
the success of this and the other schools depended. Addresses were also 
made by gentlemen present, in which many pleasing incidents in the his- 
tory of the public schools, and of the town and city of Cambridge, were 
narrated, and many valuable suggestions thrown out, by which children, 
teachers, parents and school officers can profit. We make the following 
extract from the address of Rev. Mr. Stearns, Chairman of the High 
School Committee. 

" At the time of my settlement here as a clergyman in this place, in 
December, 1831, there were in the town 6 school-houses, 8 school-rooms, 
8 teachers and about 400 scholars. 

At this time, 1848, there are 17 school-houses, 35 rooms, 44 teachers, 
and 2136 children. 

During this time, it is true, the population has more than doubled, but 
the interest taken in the schools, and their progress, has much more than 
tripled or quadrupled. 

If at thai period any school committee had seriously proposed the erec-. 
tion of such a building as this for a High School, they would undoubtedly 
have been excused from public service the coming year, if not immedi- 
ately sent to Charlestown as insane. But the spirit of improvement has 
prevailed, and now we have all needed advantages for making good 
scholars, who shall be an honor to their parents, and to their generation. 

But, Mr. Mayor, it cannot be too deeply impressed on the minds of our 
youth that the means of education, are not education itself. We may 
have good school-houses, fine libraries, superior collections of philosophi- 
cal apparatus, and the best of teachers, with miserable scholars. There 
are means of improvement in creation all around us — good influences 
ascend to us from the earth and come down to us from the sky. 
The sun is a teacher, the evening stars impart knowledge, while every 
flower is eloquent with wisdom. But what intelligence do all these out- 
ward instructors communicate to the ox who grazes without reflection, or 
to the horse who eats his provender without thanksgiving 1 Hardly more 
will books, and maps, and pleasant seats, and air-pumps, and scientific 

27 



418 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

lectures, do for a doltish mind. The outward may stimulate to improve- 
ment, but all good action springs from within. There must be in the 
scholar's own mind a strong desire for knowledge, a spirit aspiring to ex- 
cellence, a force of moral purpose which no small difficulties can vanquish, 
or but little which is valuable will be accomplished. 

Mr. Chairman, we have great hopes from the school now to be organ- 
ized in this house, — and these teachers, and these parents, and these 
scholars, must see to it. that we and our fellow citizens are not disap- 
pointed. 

This school is intended to carry forward and complete the education of 
our children — I mean complete it as far as it goes— for education never 
can be completed. It is a work which extends beyond the school-room 
into active life, all through time into eternity. It is the destiny of good 
minds to improve for ever. They will go on rising, expanding, increasing 
in true wisdom as the endless ages pass along, and their progress will be 
co-eternal with the eternity of God. We wish to begin right with the 
young in their earliest years, and to carry them forward in tins school till 
they are prepared for service and usefulness in society, and the good be- 
ginnings of immortal advancement are firmly laid. We wish to attend 
here to the proper development of their faculties, to see that these unfold 
themselves in just proportions, and that our children are qualified to meet 
the demands of the age and devote their powers to life's best ends. 

We establish this school, also, with our schools generally, as a preserv- 
ative against vice. When I look round, as I do now, upon more than 
one hundred children fresh as a flower garden in the morning, it seems 
hardly in good taste, to suggest that any of them may become the vic- 
tims of evil, and sink in disgrace from society. And yet, it is possible that 
among these young men and young women too, there may be some one 
or more who will live to be the objects of public indignation and of self- 
scorn. God forbid 5 But juvenile depravity has fearfully increased 
within a few years ! And no one can tell who will be among the next 
victims. Mr. Chairman, 1 once had a dream — and it was among the most 
terrible dreams which ever troubled my sleeping imagination. I saw a 
bright and beautiful boy playing innocently upon the green, suddenly the 
grass began to move, the earth to undulate till it became water, and 
the boy went down in an instant, and nothing was left of him but three or 
four air bubbles on the surface. I awoke in horror, and was troubled all 
day by this midnight vision. I thought then, and I have ever since 
thought, that it was a vivid illustration of the course and end of many a 
youth. They sport thoughtlessly among the green and flowery fields of 
temptation. They begin to yield, principle gives way, and they go down 
and are lost as respects character for ever. We wish to render the treach- 
erous earth under them firmer. We would change it into the hard 
granite of virtue, we would have them stand on the immovable rock of 
ages. 

We hope, also. Mr. Mayor, from this school an advantage to the adult 
community. The benefits of an institution like this do not terminate with 
the children. By a reflex influence, they return to the families from 
which our children come. It is no unheard of thing for a rough, hard, 
uneducated man to be mellowed and transformed by the influences which 
his children and his children's children bring home from the churches and 
the schools. A good school does excite the adult mind ; it awakens in- 
terest in education, and promotes improvement. If this school fulfills our 
expectations, it will be to the community a moral and intellectual sun, 
throwing light into every dwelling. 

We believe also that it will act happily upon our younger schools. It 
will be to them an object of hope and honorable ambition. They will 
take their examples from it — and our little children from the first will be 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. 419 

aspiring and reaching towards it. But I must stop, for I am impatient, 
as doubtless you and this assembly must be, for the instructions which 
are to fall from more eloquent lips than mine. Children, consider how 
much is depending upon you. Be determined to fix down to hard study, 
to do right ; and on the first principle of all true wisdom, " Remember 
now thy Creator in the days of thy youth." 

After Mr. Stearns had concluded, a hymn was sung. The Mayor then 
stated that the President of Harvard College was present, and that he 
hoped he would favor the company with some remarks." 

President Everett accepted the invitation, and responded to the call as 
follows: — 

May it please your Honor : — 

Connected as I am with another place of education, of a kind which is 
commonly regarded as of a higher order, it is precisely in that connection, 
that I learn to feel and appreciate the importance of good schools. I am 
not so ignorant of the history of our fathers, as not to know, that the 
spirit, which founded and fostered Harvard College, is the spirit which 
has founded and upheld and will continue to support and cherish the 
schools of New England. I know well, sir, that Universities and Col- 
leges can neither flourish nor even stand alone. You might as well 
attempt to build your second and third stories in the air, without a first 
floor or abasement, as to have collegiate institutions without good schools 
for preparatory education, and for the diffusion of general information 
throughout the community. If the day should ever come, which I do not 
fear in our beloved country, when this general education shall be neg- 
lected and these preparatory institutions allowed to perish ; — if the day 
should ever come (of which I have no apprehension) when the schools of 
New England shall go down, depend upon it, sir, the colleges will go 
with them, ft will be with them, as it was with the granite warehouses, 
the day before yesterday in Federal street, in Boston ; if the piers at the 
foundation give way, the upper stories will come down in one undistin- 
guished ruin. 

I anticipate no sueh disaster, Mr. Mayor, though it must be admitted 
that we live in an age of revolutions, of which every steamer brings us 
some fresh and astonishing account. But our revolutions are of a more 
auspicious character, and it occurred to me as 1 was coming down with 
your worthy associate (Mr. Whitney,) and your respected predecessor 
(Mr. Green,) to whom we have just listened with so much pleasure, that 
we were traversing a region, in which a more important revolution com- 
menced no very long time since, and is still in progress, — far more impor- 
tant for us and our children, — than any of those which have lately con- 
vulsed the continent of Europe. I do not now refer to the great politi- 
cal and historical events of which this neighborhood was the theatre ; of 
whieh the monuments are in sight from these windows, but to a revolu- 
tion quiet and silent in its origin and progress, unostentatious in outward 
manifestations, but imparting greater change and warranting brighter 
hopes for most of those who hear me, — for our young friends before us, — 
than any of the most startling events that stare upon us in capitals in the 
columns of the newspapers, after every arrival from Europe. The Rev- 
erend Mr. Stearns has beautifully sketched some of the most important 
features of this peaceful revolution. 

When I entered college, Mr. Mayor, (and I believe I shall not tell the 
audience quite how many years ago that is ; you can do it, sir, but I will 
thank you not to,) there were a few straggling houses, shops, and taverns 
along the Main street at Cambridgeport. All back of this street to the 
aorta, and I believe almost all south jf it to the river, — the entire district 



420 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

in the centre of which we are now assembled, was in a state of nature, 
pretty equally divided between barren pasturage, salt-marsh, and what I 
must admit had no mean attraction for us freshmen, whortleberry swamp. 
Not one of the high roads had been cut. which now traverse the plain 
between Main street and the old road to Charlestown. East Cambridge 
did not exist even in the surveyor's imagination. There was not a church 
nor a public school east of Dr. Holmes' and Old Cambridge Commor , 
and if any one had prophesied that- within forty years a population like 
this would cover the soil, — with its streets and houses, and gardens, its 
numerous school-houses and churches, its conservatories breathing all the 
sweets of the tropics, its private libraries equal to the choicest in the land, 
and all the other appendages of a high civilization, he would have been 
set down as a visionary indeed. But this change, this revolution has 
taken place even within the life time of the venerable lady (Mrs. Mer- 
riam) introduced to us in such a pleasing manner by Mr. Stearns ; and 
we are assembled this morning to take a respectful notice of what may 
be called its crowning incident, the opening of a High School in that 

Frimitive whortleberry swamp. I believe I do not over-state matters when 
say, that no more important event than this is likely to occur, in the 
course of the lives of many of those here assembled. As far as our in- 
terests are concerned, all the revolutions in Europe multiplied tenfold are 
nothing to it. No, sir, not if the north were again to pour forth its myri- 
ads on central and southern Europe and break up the existing govern- 
ments and states into one general wreck, it would not be an article of in- 
telligence at all so important to us as the opening of a new school. No> 
my young friends, this is a day which may give an auspicious turn to your 
whole career in life ; may affect your best interests not merely for time 
but for eternity. 

There is certainly nothing in which the rapid progress of the country is 
more distinctly marked than its schools. It is not merely their multipli- 
cation in numbers, bat their improvement as places of education. A 
school forty years ago was a very different affair from what it is now. 
The meaning of the word is changed. A little reading, writing, and 
ciphering, a very little grammar ; and for those destined for college, a 
little Latin and Greek, very indifferently tu.ught. were all we got at a 
eommon town school in my day. The range was narrow ; the instruc- 
tion superficial. In our modern school system, taking it as a whole com- 
posed of its several parts in due gradation, — viz. the primary, the district, 
and the High School, — the fortunate pupil not only enjoys a very 
thorough course of instruction in the elementary branches, but gets a 
good foundation in French, a good preparation for college, if he desires it, 
according to the present advanced standard of requirement ; a general 
acquaintance with the applied mathematics, the elements of natural phi- 
losophy, some suitable information as to the form of government and 
political system under which we live, and no inconsiderable practice in 
the noble arts of writing and speaking our mother tongue. 

It might seem, at first, that this is too wide a circle for a school. But 
the experience of our well conducted schools has abundantly shown that 
it is not too extensive. With faithful and competent teachers and wil- 
ling and hearty learners, all the branches I have named and others I have 
passed over can be attended to with advantage, between the ages of four 
and sixteen. 

Such being the case, our School Committees have done no more than 
their duty, in prescribing this extensive course and furnishing to master 
and pupils the means of pursuing it. I cannot tell you, sir, how much I 
have been gratified at hastily looking into the alcove behind us. As I 
stepped into it this, morning, Mr. Smith, the intelligent master of the 
school, pointed out to. me the heautiful electrical machine behind the door 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. 4«J1 

with the just remark that my venerable predecessor, President Dunster, 
would not have known what it was. No, sir, nor would the most eminent 
philosopher in the world before the time of Franklin. Lord Bacon would 
not have known what it was. nor Sir Isaac Newton. Mr. Smith reminded 
me of the notion of Cotton Mather (one of the most learned men of his 
day,) that lightning proceeded from the Prince of the Power of the Air, 
by which he accounted for the fact that it was so apt to strike the spires 
of churches. Cotton Mather would have come nearer the truth, if he had 
called it a shining manifestation of the power and skill, by which the 
Great Author of the Universe works out some of the mighty miracles of 
creation and nature. And only think, sir, that these newly discovered 
mysteries of the material world, unknown to the profoundest sages of 
elder days, are so effectually brought down to the reach of common 
schools in our day, that these young friends, before they are finally dis- 
missed from these walls, will be made acquainted with not a few of the 
wonderful properties of the subtle element, evolved and condensed by that 
machine, and which recent science has taught, to be but different forms of 
one principle, whether it flame across the heavens in the midnight storm, 
or guide the mariner across the pathless ocean 5— or leap from city to city 
across the continent as swiftly as the thought of which it is the vehicle ; 
and which I almost venture to predict,, before some here present shall 
taste of death, will, by some still more sublime generalization, be identi- 
fied with the yet hidden principle which thrills through the nerves of ani- 
mated beings, and binds life to matter, by the ties of sensation. 

But while you do well, sir, in your High School to make provision for 
these advanced studies, I know that as long as it remains under your in- 
struction, the plain elementary branches will not be undervalued. There 
is perhaps a tendency in that direction in some ©f our modern schools : I 
venture to hope it will not be encouraged here. I know it is not to be 
the province of this school to teach the elements; but I am sure you will 
show that you entertain sound views of their importance. I hold, sir, 
that to read the English language well, that is with intelligence, feeling, 
spirit, and effect ; — to write with dispatch, a neat, handsome, legible hand, 
(for it is after all, a great object in writing to have others able to read 
what you write,) and to be master of the four rules of arithmetic, so as 
to dispose at once with accuracy of every question of figures which comes 
up in practical life : — I say I call this a good education; and if you add 
the ability to write pure grammatical English, with the help of very few 
hard Words, I regard it as an excellent education. These are the tools ; 
you can do much with them, but you are helpless without them. They 
are the foundation ; and unless you begin with these, all your flashy at- 
tainments, a little natural philosophy, and a little mental philosophy; a 
little physiology and a little geology, and all the other ologiesand osophies, 
are but ostentatious rubbish. 

There is certainly no country in the world in which so much money is 
paid for schooling as in ours. This can be proved by figures. I believe 
there is no country where the common schools are so good. But they 
may be improved. It is not enough to erect commodious school-houses ; 
or compensate able teachers, and then leave them, masters and pupils, to 
themselves. A school is not a clock which you can wind up and then 
leave it to go of itself. It is an organized living body : it has sensibili- 
ties ; it craves sympathy. You must not leave the School Committee to 
do all the work. Your teachers want the active countenance of the whole 
body of parents, of the whole intelligent community. I am sure you, Mr. 
Smith, would gladly put up with a little injudicious interference in single 
cases, if you could have the active sympathies of the whole body of 
parents to fall back upon indelicate and difficult cases, and to support and 
cheer you under the burthen of your labors, from day to day. I think 



422 



SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 



this matter deserves more attention than it has received ; and if so small 
a number as thirty parents would agree together, to come to the school, 
some one of them, each in his turn, but once a month, or rather if but 25 
or 26 would do it, it would give your teacher the support and countenance 
of a parent's presence every day ; at. a cost to each individual of ten or 
eleven days in the year. Would not the good to be effected be worth the 
sacrifice 1 

I have already spoken too long, Mr. Mayor, and will allude to but one 
other topic. In most things, as I have said, connected with education, we 
are incalculably in advance of other days :— in some, perhaps, we have 
fallen below their standard. I know, sir, old men are apt to make unfa- 
vorable contrasts between the present time and the past j and if I do not 
soon begin to place myself in that class, others will do it for me. But I 
really think that in some things, belonging, perhaps, it will be thought, to 
the minor morals, the present promising generation of youth might learn 
something of their grandfathers, if not their fathers. When I first went 
to a village school, sir, I remember it as yesterday ; — I seem still to hold 
by one hand for protection, (I was of the valiant age oi~ three years) to 
an elder sister's apron ; — with the other I grasped my primer, a volume 
of about two and a half inches in length, which formed then the sum tota? 
of my library, and which had lost the blue paper cover from one corner 7 
(my first misfortune in life ;) I say it was the practice then, as we were 
trudging along to school, to draw up by the road-side, if a traveller, a 
stranger, or a person in years, passed along, " and make our manners," as 
it was called. The little girls courtesied, the boys made a bow; it was not 
done with much grace, I suppose : bat there was a civility and decency 
about it, which did the children good, and produced a pleasing impression 
on those who witnessed it. The age of village chivalry is past, never to 
return. These manners belong to a forgotten order of things. They are 
too precise and rigorous for this enlightened age. I sometimes fear the 
pendulum has swung too far in the opposite extreme. Last winter I was 
driving into town in a carriage closed behind, but open in front. There 
was in company with me, the Rev. President Woods, of Bowdoin Col- 
lege, Maine, and that distinguished philanthropist and excellent citizen, 
Mr. Amos Lawrence. Well, sir, we happened to pass a school-house 
just as the boys (to use the common expression) were "let out." I sup- 
pose the little men had just been taught within doors something about the 
laws, which regulate the course of projectiles, and determine the curves 
in which they move. Intent on a practical demonstration, and tempted 
by the convenient material, I must say they put in motion a quantity ol 
spherical bodies, in the shape of snow balls, which brought the doctrine 
• quite home to us wayfarers, and made it wonderful that we got off with 
no serious inconvenience, which was happily the case. This I thought 
was an instance of free and easy manners, verging to the opposite ex- 
treme of the old fashioned courtesy, which I have just described. I am 
quite sure that the boys of this school would be the last to indulge an ex- 
periment attended with so much risk to the heads of innocent third 
persons. 

Nothing remains, sir, but to add my best wishes for teachers and pu- 
pils ; — You are both commencing under the happiest auspices. When 1 
consider that there is not one of you, my young friends, who does not en- 
joy gratuitously the opportunity of obtaining a better school education, 
than we could have bought, Mr. Mayor, when we were boys, with the 
wealth of the Indies, I cannot but think that each one of you, boys and 
girls, will be ready to say with grateful hearts, the lines have fallen to 
me in pleasant places ; yea, I have a goodly heritage. 

To you, Mr. Smith, we wish entire success. The community looks to 
you with confidence, to add to your high reputation as an instructor, and 



DEDICATORY EXERCISES AT CAMBRIDGE. 423 

commits to you these its treasures, with the full assurance that, you will 
be faithful to the trust 

An- original hymn, written for the occasion, was then sung. 

At the close of the exercises, the Mayor, as Chairman of the School 
Committee, transferred the Building and the School to the immediate 
care of the High School Committee. Mr. Stearns responded in a word, 
as follows : — Mr. Mayor, in behalf of the High School Committee, I ac- 
cept this important trust at your hands. We will endeavor faithfully and 
according to the best of our ability, to perform its duties, the first of 
which will be to commit the care of the school to Mr. Elbridge Smith, its 
principal teacher. 

Mr. Smith, we sometimes say of a remarkably honest man, I would 
trust him with untold gold. We are about to entrust to you what is of 
unspeakably more value. If each of these pupils were a million of gold, 
jthe treasure committed to you would be worth infinitely less than these 
immortal minds. I speak in the name of every parent here, when I say 
we have no higher interests than the welfare of our children. If evil 
befall them— if through a defective education, they should turnout badly, 
there would be but little left to make life desirable to us. If you so suc- 
ceed in your good work, that our sons and daughters shall grow up around 
us, intelligent, respectable, filial and good, j^>u shall have our thanks here, 
and hereafter. We give you our confidence — Heaven grant you its 
blessing. 

Mr. Smith remarked in reply, 

That it was his sincere intention to receive the important trust, which 
had been committed to his care, without attempting a reply. But such had 
been the course of remark as to awaken feelings too strong to be suppressed : 
and though it might be but an act of rashness for an unpracticed 
hand to attempt extempore discourse in the presence of distinguished gen- 
tlemen, he felt called upon to say that he was deeply sensible that, in ac- 
cepting this trust, he received no sinecure. Without enlarging upon the 
nature of his duties, or adding aught to what had already been said, he 
Would simply say that he would perform the duties assigned him to the best 
of his humble ability. He felt that he should do injustice to his feelings not 
to return his thanks to the distinguished gentleman who had addressed us, 
for the sentiments which he had so beautifully and forcibly expressed. He 
had spoken of what he termed the minor immoralities. Mr. Smith had 
often had occasion to use the same expressions in enforcing the practice of 
those civilities of school life to which he had referred. And you, scholars, he 
remarked, can bear me testimony how often, during the brief period of my 
connection with you, I have referred you to our distinguished guest as 
combining in himself those very qualities which he has enjoined upon you. 
He had felt great pleasure in hearing his feeble instructions seconded by 
the example and precepts of one of the most gifted scholars of the land. 
He should have occasion to remember him with gratitude during the re- 
mainder of his life, for the aid which he. had this day afforded him in the 
discharge of his duties as a teacher. The children have heard to-day 
the sentiments of one who has left the high duties of State and diplomacy 
for the still higher work of instructing New England youth. They 
should make this day a crisis in their existence. 

He closed by remarking that in his boyhood, while laboring hard to 
acquire an education, he became the proud owner of a handsome octavo, 
entitled " Everett's Orations," — no inconsiderable portion of which he 
committed to memory. He could not better conclude, than by reciting an 
extract which this occasion brought fresh to his recollection. " Let the 
pride of military glory belong to foreign nations : let the refined corrup- 
tions of the older world attract the traveller to its splendid capitals ; let a 
fervid sun ripen for others the luxuries of a tropical clime. Let it be ours 



424 SCHOOL ARCHITECTURE. 

to boast that we inherit a land of liberty and light ; .^-«w 

and the church continue to be the landmarks of the New England village; 
let the son of New England, whither soever he may wander, leave that 
behind him which shall make him home-sick for his native land ; let free- 
dom, and knowledge, and morals, and religion, as they are our birthright, 
be the birthright of our children to the end of time." 

The exercises were closed by singing a benediction hymn to the tune 
of Old Hundred, in which all present joined. The company left reluc- 
tantly ; having spent three hours so profitably and pleasantly that the 
time passed unawares. The highest expectations have been raised in 
regard to the school, and we hope they may be more than realized. 

We would gladly devote more of our pages to the publication of such 
addresses as these, but we have already swelled this volume beyond our 
original plan. 

Our readers will find in the eighth and ninth volumes of the Massachu- 
setts Common School Journal, for 1846 and 1847, very full and interesting 
accounts of the Dedication of the State Normal School-houses at Bridge- 
water and at Westfield. The addresses of the Hon. Horace Mann, Gov. 
Briggs, Prof. Sears, Hon. William Bates, and Rev. Dr. Humphrey, are 
worthy of the widest circulation. Dr. Humphrey's address is an elabo- 
rate argument in behalf of Normal Schools. 



ALLEN'S EDUCATION TABLE. 



425 



Allen's Alphabetical, Spelling, Reading, and arithmetical 

Table. 




Allen's Education Table consists of a board or table, along the centre of 
which are horizontal grooves, or raised ledges forming grooves between them, 
that connect with perpendicular grooves or compartments on the sides, in 
which are inserted an assortment of movable blocks, on the face of which are 
cut the letters of the alphabet, both capitals and small, the nine digits and 
cipher, and all the usual pauses and signs used in composition and arithmetic. 

The letters, figures and signs are large, so as to be readily recognized by all 
the members of a large class, and from even the extremity of a large school- 
room, and are so assorted and arranged as to be easily slid from the perpendic- 
ular grooves or compartments into the horizontal grooves, and there combined 
into syllables, words and sentences, or used in simple arithmetical operations. 
When the lesson in the alphabet, spelling, reading, composition, or arithmetic, 
is finished, the blocks can be returned to their appropriate places. 

The experience of many teachers in schools of different grades, and of many 
mothers at home, (the God-appointed school for little children, next to which 
should be ranked the well organized Primary School, with a bright, gentle, 
affectionate and patient female teacher,) has demonstrated that by accustoming 
the child, either individually, or in a class, to select letter by letter, and move 
them from their appropriate case to the centre of the board, and there combin- 
ing them into syllables and words, a knowledge of the alphabet, and of words, 
is acquired in a much shorter time and in a much more impressive and agree- 
able manner, than by any of even the best methods now pursued. 

All of the advantages derived from the method of dictation, and the use of the 
slate and blackboard, in teaching children the alphabet, spelling, reading, and 
the use of capital letters and pauses, as well as the elementary principles of 
arithmetic, such as numeration, addition, subtraction, &c, can be secured by 
the introduction of this Table into our Primary and District Schools. 

Manufactured by Edwin Allen only, Windham, Conn,, who will 
promptly attend to all orders for them. 



IMPROVED SCHOOL APPARATUS. 



LETTER FROM S. W. SETON, 

Agent of the Public School Society of the City of New York. 

Mr. Barnard 

Dear Sir : 

In your plans for School buildings, I am pleased to find 
suggested a closet for apparatus. It prompts the wish that in 
all cases, it may be filled with such as is adapted to the ends 
always to be had in view, — presenting progressively, distinct 
ideas of the principles of the sciences intended to be illustrated 
by it. Among the abundance that is supplied by the shops, — 
such as meets the wants of Teachers, is, as yet, among the de- 
siderata of schools. The most that I have seen is too complex 
for elementary purposes ; — and all of it, nearly useless to com- 
mon schools, from its liability to get out of order, and the slight- 
ness of its material. Simplicity, durability, and cheapness, with 
convenience and facility in using it, — should be the first objects 
to be secured in its preparation. Designing that it should be 
often used, and as frequently in the hands of the pupils, as the 
Teacher. For, undoubtedly, the illustrations by the Teacher, 
should, in most cases, be repeated by his scholars. If these are 
given without anything extraneous or perplexing, distinct ideas 
will be conveyed, and the knowledge thus imparted, becomes a 
perpetual possession. The complexity of apparatus has greatly 
retarded its introduction into our Common Schools ; rendering 
it inconvenient to arrange, and difficult of use. Besides being 
expensive, — if out of order, Teachers are without the means of 
repairing it. Thus it is thrown aside with disappointment ; and 
a most desirable plan of school operation is abandoned, as not 
worth farther consideration. 

I am happy to inform you, that there is now a prospect of 
suitable apparatus being prepared for common schools, with 
the aid and valuable suggestions of practical and experienced 
Teachers. It will be durable and cheap, and at the same time 
well finished. Much of it, especially that for primary instruc- 
tion, will differ from the usual forms of apparatus for the same 
purposes. This has sometimes been found necessary for 
strength, as well as for purposes of clearer illustration. Some 
of it is already before the public, and has been used in our 
schools with great success. I subjoin a description of that, and 
of such as is designed to be added thereto ; — so that such list, 
with the foregoing thoughts on the subject, may enable the 
readers of your useful book, to form an estimate of the desira- 
bleness of procuring it. 



IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR PRIMARY SCHOOLS. 

Geometrical Solids. — Illustrating the elements of form and 
mensuration, with revolving figures showing the formation of 
round bodies. 

Five-inch Globe. — On stand, with fixtures to suspend it by a 
cord, illustrating its motions separately and together. 

Numeral Frame. — For illustrating numbers, etc. 

A Foot Rule — a Yard Measure. — To illustrate their divisions 
and fractions, etc. 

A small Sphere. — On axis, with parallels and meridians, etc. 

Geological Specimens. — Showing the formation of the earth, 
and their uses in the arts, manufactures, and agriculture. 

Small Siphon, — Magnet, — Lens, — Pressure Plates. — A Pocket 
Microscope. 

A large Prism. 

Bulb and Tube. — To illustrate expansion by heat and pressure 
of the atmosphere. 

A small Glass Pump. 

A small Map of the World, — United States, — Europe 

A Card, with the Points of the Compass. 

A Box loith materials for Object Lessons, or a Knowledge of 
Common Things, viz : silk, muslin, flannel, cotton and woollen 
cloth, linen, calico, gingham, oil-cloth, felt, drugget, brick, pot- 
tery, china, glass, iron, steel, copper, lead, tin, brass, pewter, a 
type, a ring, a wheel, paper, parchment, leather, morocco, kid, 
buckskin, a cotton-boll (from the plant), coccoon, hair, wool, 
hemp, flax, raw silk, wax, resin, isinglass, bean, allspice, clove, 
coffee, pepper-corn, cinnamon, cocoa, rice, corn, wheat, oats, 
barley, buckwheat, a sponge, shell, cards of primary and second- 
ary colors, etc. 



APPARATUS FOR ADVANCED SCHOOLS 

Astronomy. — Orbit and plane, concentric rings, showing 
nodes and inclination of the planets' orbits, moon's orbit and 
plane, with earth's orbit, showing nodes, etc., single ball and cord 
to illustrate nodes ascending and descending. 

Tellurium, (Earth, Moon, Mercury, and Venus.) 

Five-inch Globe, with movable horizon, rings of stars, hour 
circle, etc. 

Five-inch Globe. — Exhibiting the Zones, etc. 

Orrery, complete. — On a high standard, with rings of stars 
and zodiacal signs. 

A large Microscope. 

A set of Mechanical Powers. 

An Electro Magnet. 

Pneumatic, Chemical, and other apparatus will be added. 

Ji^A plain gnide to the use of the above will be prepared to accompany the apparatus— appli* 
cation to be made to Jobiah Holbrook, 140 Grand street, New- York. 



INDEX. 



Alcott, Dr. "W. A., Essay and Plan by, 
64; quoted, 50. 

American Institute of Instruction, 
Prize Essay of, 64 ; Lectures before, 
323. 

Apparatus, provision for, 58 ; import- 
ance of, 59 ; list of, 273, 325. 

Arnott, Dr., 50. 

Atmosphere, constitution of, 45 ; 146. 

Austin, Henry, plans of school-houses 
by, 76. 

B. 

Book Manual, 294. 

Backs to seats, 56. 

Barnard, Henry, extract from Report 
by, on the school-houses of Con- 
necticut, 25 ; school-houses in Rhode 
Island, 30. 

Bell, Dr., on Ventilation, 45. 

Bishop, Nathan, report by, on school- 
houses of Providence, 233. 

Blackboard, importance of, 59 ; direc- 
tions for construction, 90, 91, 96, 289. 

Blackboard movable, plan of, 70. 

Boston, School system of, 166; Expen- 
ditures for, 171 ; plan of Primary 
school-house, 176; plan of Brimmer 
Grammar school-house in, 114 ; 
Bowdoin school-house, 206 ; Q.uincy 
school-house, 208. 

Boston plan of Ventilation, 145. 

Boston Primary School Chair, 116. 

Brimmer, Martin, 66. 

Bridgewater Normal school-house, 
plan of, 136. 

Bryant, Mr., plans of school-houses by, 
206, 208, 210. 



Calcutta, Black Hole of, Stories of, 45. 

Calisthenic Exercises, 216. 

Cambridge High school-house, dedi- 
cation of, 317. 

Carbonic Acid Gas, nature of, 43. 

Catalogue of Books of Reference, 288. 

Centremill, plan of school-house in, 
254. 

Chairs for schools, 120, 200, 201, 205. 

Churches, Ventilation of, 46 ; plan for, 
165. 

Chilson's Furnace, 154. 



Clark's, Dr. Henry G., report on ven- 
tilation, 145. 

Clark's Ventilating Stove, 155. 

Clock, 59. 

Construction, general principles of, 40. 

Connecticut, condition of school- 
houses in, 25. 

Combe, Dr., extract from, 45. 

Crosby, W. B., extract from Report 
by, on school-houses in Maine, 29. 

Crayons, how made, 96. 

D. 

Dedication of school-houses, 302. 

Defects in School Architecture to be 
avoided, 15. 

Desks, evils in construction of, 33. 

Dick, Dr. Thomas, plan of Village 
School by, 77. 

Double Fireplace, 51 ; plan of, 70. 

Dublin Hospital, experiments in ven- 
tilation in, 44. 

Dunglinson Dr., quoted, 47. 

E. 

Eaton, Horace, Report by, on school- 
houses in Vermont, 22. 

Ejecting Ventilators, 156. 

Eliot School-house, ventilation of, 150. 

Endicott School-house, ventilation of, 
150. 

Emerson's, Frederick, plan of ventila- 
tion, 144. 

Emerson, G. B., remarks by, on 
school-houses, 66; plans of school- 
houses by, 72. 

Errors in School Architecture to be 
avoided, 39. 

Essex County Teachers' Association, 
Extract from Report on School- 
houses published by, 36. 

Evaporating Dish, 53. 

Everett, President, address by, 319. 



Facher System, plan of school-rooms 
for, 83. 

Factories, want of ventilation of, 46. 

Fireplace, open, admirable for ventila- 
tion, 51. 

Franklin fireplace, 51 ; plan of, 70. 

Free Academy in City of New York 
223. 



INDEX. 



Fuel, care of, 293. 

Furnace, advantages of, 52; plan of 

used in Providence, 250 ; in Boston, 

155; in Hartford, 221. 

G. 

Gallery, plan of, 95. 

Glocester, plan of District school- 
house in, 258. 

Godwin, George, plan by, 270. 

Grammar school-house, plan of, in 
Salem, 108; in Lowell, 112; in 
Boston, 198, 206, 208; in Providence, 
240. 

Grotto del Carne, near Naples, 42. 

H. 

Haddock, Prof, extract from Report 
by, on the school-houses of New 
Hampshire, 24. 

Hanks' Improved Air-Heater, 220. 

Hartford, plan of Primary School in, 
92; Disiict School, 93; High School 
in, 214. 

High School-house, plan of, in Mid- 
dletown, 98; in Lowell, 112; in 
Providence, 233; in Hartford, 162, 
214; in Cambridge, 317. 

High Schools, Public, consideration re- 
specting, 225. 

Hints respecting ventilation, 142. 

Hosking on ventilation of buildings, 
162. 

Hospitals, ventilation of, 44. 

House of Commons, ventilation of, 49. 

Hydrogen, Sulphuretted, 48. 



Individual System of Instruction, 79. 
Injecting ventilation, 144, 156. 
Infant Schools, plan of grounds, &c. 

for, 85. 
Ingraham's Primary School Chair, 

201. 
Intermediate School, plan for, 236. 

K. 

Kimball's Improved Chair, cut of, 

115, 120. 
Kendall, H. E., plan by, 261. 

L. 

Lassaigne, extract from, 145. 

Le Blanc, 147. 

Library, arrangements for, 61, 279. 

Light, general principles to be ob- 
served in the arrangements for, 41. 

Little children, school accommoda- 
tions for, 57. 

Location of school-houses, general prin- 
ciples to be observed in the, 40. 

Lord, A. D., plan of district school- 
house by, 78. 

Lowell, plan of High School in, 112. 



M. 

Maine, condition of school-houses in, 
29. 

Mann, Horace, extracts from Report 
by, 15 ; plan for school-room by, 64 ; 
plan of gradation of schools, 64; 
extracts from Report respecting Nor- 
mal schools, 132, 136. 

Manners, as influenced by school- 
house arrangements, 21, 298. 

Massachusetts, condition of school- 
houses in 1838, and 1846, contrasted. 
16. 

Massachusetts Normal school-houses, 
136. 

Mayhew, Ira, extract from Report by, 
31 ; plan of school-houses by, 259. 

Mats, 26. 

Millar's Patent Ventilating Stove, 51. 

Minutes of Committee of Council, 83, 
142, 260. 

Michigan, condition of school-houses 
in, 31. 

Mixed Method of Instruction, school- 
rooms for, 79, 82. 

Monroe, plan of school-house in, 259. 

Mott's School Chair, 105. 

Mott's plan of ventilation, 142. 

Movable Blackboard, 70, 96. 

Mutual Method, plans of school rooms 
on, 79. 

N. 

National Society, plan of school-room 
of, 82. 

Neatness, habits of, as influenced by 
want of Mats, Scrapers, &c, 21 ; to 
be enforced, 300. 

New Hampshire, condition of school- 
houses in, 24. 

New York, condition of school-houses 
in, 16. 

New York Public School Society, plan 
of school-houses belonging to, 100; 
history of, 109 ; report to on seats 
without backs, 106. 

Normal schools, history of, 121 ; in 
New York, 123; in Massachusetts, 
132; school-houses for in Massa- 
chusetts, 136. 

O. 

Octagonal School-house, plan of, by 
Town and Davis, 73; advantages 
of, 74. 

Olmsted's stove, 52. 

Openings for ventilation, where made. 
48. 

Osgood, Rev. S., remarks by, 314. 

Oxygen, office of in the air, 43. 



Palmer's Teacher's Manual, quoted, 
51. 



INDEX. 



Pawtucket, dedication of new school- 
house in, 308. 

Perry, Rev. G. B., Essay by, 36 ; 64. 

Phillips, Stephen, liberality of, 115. 

Plans of School-houses, 63; recom- 
mended by practical teachers and 
others, 64 ; recently erected, 90. 

Potter, Prof. Alonzo, strictures by, on 
the school-houses of the State of 
New York, 19. 

Primary schools, importance of, 231. 

Primary school-houses in New York 
City, 102; in Salem, 119 ; in Boston, 
176 ; in Providence, 233. 

Privies, ventilation of, 44, 186. 

Privies, destitution of, in New York, 
21. 

Providence, plans of school-houses in, 
258. 

Providence Furnace, plan of, 258. 

Putnam Free School-house, 210. 

a. 

duincy school-house, plan of, 209. 

R. 

Reid, Dr., on ventilation, 147. 

Renwick, Mr., plan by, 1, 223. 

Rhode-Island, condition of school- 
houses in, in 1843, 30 ; in 1845, 31 ; for 
preservation of school-houses, 291. 

Roman Cement, 81. 

Rotary Swing, 86. 

Rules for the use of Clark's ventila- 
ting stove, 161. 

S. 

Salem, plan of East School-house in, 
114; do. of English and Latin High 
School, 118; dedication of school- 
houses in, 302. 

School furniture, improvements in, 201. 

: School and Schoolmaster,' extracts 
from, 66. 

Scraper, absence of, 26. 

School Architecture, essay on, 5 ; com- 
mon errors in, 39 ; general princi- 
ples of, 40. 

Seats without backs, evils of, 55, 106. 

Seats and desks, principles of construc- 
tion, 53 ; plan of, 84, 90, 94, 105, 120, 
201, 202, 205. 

Shrubbery in the yard, 66. 

Simultaneous method of instruction, 
79. 

Size of school-houses, 40. 

Smith, Dr. J. V. C, on school seats 
and desk, 55. , 

Stearns, Rev. Mr., remarks by, 318. 

Stoves, open or Franklin, recom- 
mended, 51. 

Style in School Architecture, 40, 257, 

. 261. 



T. 

Teacher, arrangement for, in the 
school-room, 57; apartments for in 
the school-house, 260. 

Teacher's Desk, plans for, 272. 

Thayer, G. F., regulations by, 296; 
remarks by respecting courtesy, 298; 
address by at Salem, 306. 

Teft, T. A., designs for school-houses 
by, 252, 254, 257. 

Temperature of school-rooms, princi- 
ples of, 50 ; uniform, 52, 292. 



Ventiducts, 167. 

Ventilation, general principles of, 42. 
71, 146; how founded for, by G. B. 
Emerson, 71 ; by Mr. Town, 75 ; by 
Minutes of Council, 142; in Salem, 
115; in Washington District School- 
house, 92; in Providence, 236; by 
Mott, 142 ; in New York, 143 ; by F. 
Emerson, 144; in Boston, 145; in 
Hartford High School, 219. 

Vermont, condition of school-houses in, 
22. 

W. 

Wales' Patent School Chair, 205. 

Warren, Dr., quoted, 55. 

Warren, plan of school-house in, 252. 

Warming, principles of, 50; by fire- 
place, 70; by stove, 51; by furnace, 
52, 258. 

Wadsworth, James, liberality of, 66. 

Washington street District School- 
house, in Hartford, 93. 

Wayland, President, address by, 308. 

Wellington Club-house, ventilation of, 
49. 

Wells, W. H., communication from, 
171. 

Westerly plan of Primary school- 
house in, 256. 

Westfield State Normal School-house, 
139. 

Whiting street Primary School-house, 
97. 

Whittling, habits of, to be prevented, 
301. 

Wilderspin plan of infant school- 
house and grounds, 87. 

Willesdon school, plan of house for, 
271. 

Windsor, District School-house in, 90. 

Woodbridge, Dr., quoted, 47. 

Woodbridge, W. C, plan of stove by 
51. 



Yard, and external arrangements, 62; 

plans of, 67, 69, 73, 76, 77, 88, 90, 101, 

118,209,219,242. 
Young, Samuel, extract from report by, 



f 



